Airport needs to match up to Smart Surat

Eight years into their demand for a working

airport

for Surat, the WWWAS (We work for a working airport, Surat) a group of enthusiasts on Facebook, continues to strive for better air connectivity for the city along with much required superior infrastructure.


Raising important questions regarding connectivity, data and facilities, the members are running from pillar to post, in pursuance of answers.

“World Economic Forum report states that Surat is expected to grow by 9.17 % in the next 15 years. In the last two years itself, the air pax of the city has grown 10 times. If we assume this growth rate to normalize to an annual rate of 20% per year till 2035, we will require a capacity of 16.5 million pax per year. Is

Surat airport

ready for the same?” asks Tarun Chugh, data expert at WWWAS.

In spite of matching Ahmedabad’s GDP at $55-65 billion (PPP) and a population similar in size of 6-7 million, merely 52 flights operate out of Surat airport with a namesake international flight to Sharjah. Vis-à-vis this, Ahmedabad handles 180 domestic and 17 daily international flights.

While on paper, Surat airport has approval of 24 hours operations, but nothing has been done in the past year to extend the present actual working hours. “Airport Authority of India (AAI ) says they will implement once airlines give proposals while airlines say that they will provide more flights once Surat has 24X7 operations. While even smaller cities like Patna and Indore have been made operational 24X7, how come Surat lacks it ?” Chugh questions.

The modular terminal building lacks basic infrastructure and requires the new extension to be completed on war footing along with parallel taxiways. Most importantly, an extended runway of 3,810m to enable double aisle planes and international flights operate from the airport.

Speaking to TOI, pilots from leading airlines stated, “Currently 2,290m runway length is available from the city side since 615m has been kept in abeyance due to building obstructions in the flight descent path. Pilots prefer to land in accordance to the METAR station, hence 80% of the time pilots prefer city side landing than from Dumas side.”

With the ONGC pipeline issue, chances of runway extension seem dim, lost in bureaucratic apathy.

Regarding the much required central industrial security force (CISF), Chugh states, “An RTI by WWWAS clearly states that at a meeting held after the buffalo incident in 2014, the appointment of CISF personnel at the airport was okayed as part of the 170 crore rupees development resolution by the AAI. At present, Surat airport is the only one among top 50 airports in the country that doesn’t have CISF security!”

Speaking to the TOI , Rakesh Asthana, director of civil aviation security, said, “ In principal, MHA has already given approval for deployment of CISF. We have conducted rationalization study for CISF deployment. Hopefully it should be deployed soon.”