Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION (Shri G. M. Siddeshwara)
(a) & (b) : Development/upgradation of airports is a continuous process and is undertaken by Airports Authority of India (AAI) from time to time depending on traffic demand, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, availability of land etc. The expansion of apron with additional bays for parking A-321 type of aircraft at Dimapur Airport has already been carried out. For further development additional requirement of land has been projected to the State Govt. of Nagaland.
AAI has prepared a Detailed Project Report for construction of a Greenfield Airport at Ciethu near Kohima. However, the proposed site has certain limitations for operations due to hilly and undulating terrain which may limit its operations to clear weather conditions and hamper further expansion of the airport. Subsequently, the State Govt. has identified another site at Ruzaphema in Peren district and also suggested to reassess the feasibility at Ciethu for bigger aircrafts by cutting down an adjacent small hillock. In order to carry out feasibility studies, AAI has requested the State Govt. of Nagaland to provide the required documents like Survey of India Map with duly marked airport sites, revenue map of the sites, metrological data for the last five consecutive years, etc.
(c) & (d): Yes, Madam. The number of flights operating to and from Dimapur Airport has been decreased recently from 18 to 8 flights per week. Presently, 3 flights per week routing from Kolkata-Dibrugarh-Dimapur-Kolkata and 2 flights per week from Kolkata- Dimapur-Dibrugarh-Kolkata are operating to/from Dimapur Airport. The airlines are free to operate anywhere in the country and it is up to them to provide air services to specific places depending upon the traffic demand and commercial viability while complying with the Route Dispersal Guidelines.
(e): The steps taken to increase the flights to designate remote and strategic areas include waiving off landing charges to aircraft with a maximum certified capacity of less than 80 seats operating from non-metro airports, waiving off night parking charges for aircraft of domestic operators at airports located in states where State Govt. levies VAT on ATF upto 5%. Also, as per Slot Allocation guidelines, if an existing airline plans a new flight to connect new stations in Tier-II/ Tier-III cities from Tier-I cities, then the same is given priority over other airlines for allocation of slots. Further, the Govt. of India has issued a Policy on Regional and Remote Area Air Connectivity to encourage every air transport service operator to provide a minimum of air transport services to designate remote and strategic areas.
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