New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport becomes the first one in the country to cross the footfall of 5.5 crores in 2016.One of the busiest airports in the country, IGI witnessed 4 crore domestic and 1.5 crore international passengers last year. Whereas, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport occupied second position for handling 4.4 crore travellers.
As per the information published by the Delhi International Airport Private Limited also known as DIAL, IGI in 2015 saw 4.6 crores of passengers therefore in 2016 the numbers increased by 21%. The two metro cities: New Delhi and Mumbai account for more than half of the air traffic in India.
Because of continuous increase in the number of passengers, in the past successive Union governments have taken into consideration to have a second airport in the capital, but nothing major has come out on it. When questioned for a plan that the aviation ministry approved last year, to get bigger budget terminal. DIAL did not share any details of the plan, nor did they provide a timeline or the expenditure that will be incurred in executing the expansion of IGI. It has been some time have been talking of clearing a second airport for Delhi, but there has been no concrete move on that front. As per the plan the airport is expected to get a new bigger budget terminal and the fourth runway.
On the report, of IGI acquiring first position with the increase in the number of passengers a source was quoted as saying, “IGI has huge tracts of open land where more terminals and another runway can be built. The problem area is Mumbai. Navi Mumbai is a very challenging site where hills have to be levelled and rivulets diverted.But apart from that site, there is no other place of that size available that can house Mumbai’s second airport,”.
