Dholera International Airport news: With the Dholera International Airport Company Limited (DIACL) deciding to fast-track the airport project late last month, decks have been cleared for work on the upcoming greenfield airport. The Dholera International Airport is a part of Dholera Special Investment Region (Dholera SIR) of Gujarat government, located at a distance of 100 kilometres south west of Ahmedabad. Once fully operational, the Dholera International Airport is likely to have an annual capacity of 50 million passengers. The project is being implemented with an aim to decongest the saturated Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad.
Dholera International Airport: Key facts about the project
• The Dholera Airport will be built on 1700 acres of land, 29 km from Dholera and 80 km from Ahmedabad. The Dholera International Airport project aims to decongest the Ahmedabad airport, which has been handling 11 million passengers per annum, as against its capacity of 7 million passengers.
• Besides decongesting Ahmedabad Airport, the upcoming airport in Dholera will also cater to other regions of Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Kheda, Nadiad and Anand in Gujarat. The first phase of the airport is likely to become operational by the year 2024.
• The airport is expected to have two huge runways on it. One of the runways to be built in the first phase with a capacity to handle up to 30 million passengers per annum. The second runway would be built under the project’s second phase, having a capacity of 20 million passengers per annum.
• The airport will be well connected with city’s transport systems. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has acquired a 120 metres wide strip extending from Dholera SIR (Special Investment Region) to Ahmedabad. 90 metres of this strip would be used for a six-lane highway and 30 metres for a Metro link.
• For the infrastructure development at Dholera SIR including the Dholera International Airport, the state government of Gujarat would be investing Rs 20,000 crore.
The greenfield airport is going to be a part of India’s first smart and futuristic city. It is being said that the proposed Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) will be bigger than Singapore in terms of size, provided with several world-class facilities. The city of Dholera is strategically located between the state’s prominent industrial cities of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bhavnagar and Rajkot.