A special meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 6 by Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India with regard to improving infrastructure facilities at the Coimbatore International Airport.
Coimbatore: Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India has readily agreed to arrange a special meeting on Tuesday, December 6 to privatise the airport as as to strengthen and improve the inrastructure facility at the Coimbatore International Airport.
President B Sriramulu of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) met Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation at his office in New Delhi on November 30 and submitted a memorandum for:
1. Establishment of an Exclusive International Departure Lounge.
2. For strengthening the cargo terminal.
3. For speedy completion of Land Acquisition process and runaway expansion which are overdue.
4. Also requested to improve overall infrastructure at Coimbatore International Airport to accommodate more international flights and wide-bodied aircrafts.
The Memorandum read, "We, on behalf of the Members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore would like to draw your kind attention for the privatisation of Coimbatore International Airport to facilitate strengthening the infrastructure needs of Coimbatore. A Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model could be mooted to make it feasible.
While the region holds huge growth potential, the airport infrastructure in Coimbatore is wanting in many ways. The Ministry should consider:
1. Establishment of an Exclusive International Departure Lounge:
The need of the hour is to establish ‘an exclusive International departure’ lounge at the Coimbatore International Airport. The present Passenger Terminal Building is not large enough to accommodate the traffic. Though there has been a marginal dip in passenger traffic from an estimated 2.8 million during the pre-Covid times to touch around 2 million at present, Coimbatore has over the years emerged as the second highest exporting hub in Tamil Nadu and the 29th highest exporting district in the country.
Surveys show that this traffic could double to 4 million within the next four years.The apathy at this juncture is that the capacity of the present passenger terminal is only around 350-400 passengers. During peak hours, the influx of passengers touches a high of 850+. Flight connectivity to Singapore and Sharjah (Dubai) is available from Coimbatore, but there is no exclusive International Departure Terminal.
Airport authorities are forced to make temporary arrangements when these international flights land/ depart. Passengers have no option but to put up with a lot of inconvenience as there is no separate or exclusive International Departure Terminal.
2. Strengthening the Cargo Terminal:
Cargo potential is huge from this region. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen the cargo terminal. Export of Gems and Jewellery from this region cannot be underestimated. While the potential is huge and growing, there is no assessor at present. Exporters are therefore constrained to find an alternate route.
3. Runway expansion:
Runway expansion work is long overdue. It was last laid in 2008. The present runway is 2990 metres in length and 45 metres wide. This is being extended to 3810 x 45 metres to enable landing and take-off of wide-bodied aircraft. The progress is abysmally slow, as the land acquisition process, though nearing completion is not yet over. It is about 15 years since this proposal was mooted. About 80 acres of land is yet to be acquired.
This has to be hastened to get the airport expansion project up and running. Your intervention in this regard would be most helpful, considering Air India’s keenness to operate a flight to Dubai from Coimbatore. While the operator is ready, the airport is not."