An expert committee of the environment ministry has given green clearance to Rs 16,000 crore expansion of New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), to be carried out by its operator GMR Group.
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF), gave the environmental nod for the expansion of IGIA last month.
The project includes up-gradation, development and construction of facilities to achieve airport capacity to handle about 109 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and about 2.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of cargo by 2034.
The overall airport infrastructure currently has the capacity to handle about 62 MPPA and cargo handling capacity of about 1.5 MTPA.
The airport is the busiest in the country it handled 57.7 million passengers and more than 8.57 lakh tonnes of cargo in 2016-17.
"The EAC, on being satisfied with the submissions of the project proponent, recommended the project for grant of environmental clearance and stipulated specific conditions along with other environmental conditions while considering for accord of environmental clearance..." the committee said in the minutes of a meeting held last month.
Total passengers at IGIA, a sum of domestic and international flyers, are forecast to grow at an average of 5.6 per cent annually, reaching about 109.3 MPPA in 2033-34 from the current levels.
As the the existing facilities are inadequate to cater services of handling increased volume of aircrafts, passengers and cargo. Hence, it is evidently important that the airport capacity needs expansion, GMR said in its request for environmental clearance.
The proposed development of IGIA includes expansion of existing terminals (T1, T2 and T3), construction of a new terminal (T4), cargo terminals and cargo city/village and Development of new runway and taxiway among others.
"The total estimated project cost for the expansion is Rs 16,000 crore and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) is spending on an average about Rs 1 crore per annum towards pollution control and treatment," the panel said.
Expansion activities is being implemented in three phases - Phase-3A (2016-2020), Phase-3B (2021-2025) and Phase-4 (2026-2034), the EAC said.
The expansion will be done within the existing airport land and is interlinked with the current infrastructure. There will be no additional land acquisition as part of the expansion. The land under existing airport is 5,106 acres, the committee said.
DIAL is a joint venture formed as a consortium between GMR Group (54%), Airports Authority of India (26%) and Fraport AG & Eraman Malaysia (10% each). GMR is the lead member of the consortium.
