(a) whether the Government proposes to upgrade Agra Airport to International Airport;
(b) if so, the details and the present status thereof along with the expenditure likely to be incurred thereon and the time-frame fixed for completion of this project;
(c) whether the Government has received any proposal for upgradatiion of Biju Patnask Airport; and
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the action taken by the Government thereon?
Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION (Dr Mahesh Sharma)
(a) & (b): No, Sir. Agra Airport belongs to Indian Air Force (IAF) / Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) maintains only a Civil Enclave there. For expansion of the Civil Enclave, a suitable piece of land of about 55.29 acres adjacent lo the IAF boundary has been identified and State Govt. of Uttar Pradesh has been requested to provide the same free of cost and free from all encumbrances to AAI for the development of a New Civil Air Terminal. At present, there is no proposal to declare Agra Airport as international and no concrete time frame for upgradation of the airport is envisaged at this stage.
(c) & (d): Yes, Madamu For extension of runway length to 10500 ft., and providing associated facilities for large aircraft operations, as pro- posed by the State Government of Odisha. AAI has requested the State Government to provide additional land free of cost and free from all encumbrances.
AAI has operationalized new domestic terminal with a capacity to handle 800 passengers at a time and modified the existing old terminal for handling international operations. Bhubaneswar Airport has been declared as international airport in November, 2013.