Surat: Usually in Gujarat, the projects that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi inaugurates are completed on or before the stipulated time. But none of the 353 crore works announced by Prime Minister Modi in 2019 on Surat Airport has been completed. The surprising thing is that despite the extension of the completion period three to four times due to Kovid (Corona), the work of expansion of parking apron, taxi-way and terminal building has not been completed. These works will not be completed this year even though one more extension has been announced till March 31-2022.
Surprisingly, after the photo of water filling the pit dug by the contractor for the parking apron was circulating on social media, the system started removing water from the pit before the Prime Minister’s visit to Surat. As Tantra Supere is aware, the pit for the new parking apron connected to the runway had been filled with rain water for three months despite Surat airport being known for bird hit incidents. Meanwhile, despite the VVIP movement of leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Ashok Gehlot, Arvind Kejriwal, this negligence was shown.
The structure of the terminal building has also been erected. No internal work is in progress. 353 crore works at breakneck speed, the airline companies stopped air operations from Surat, reducing the number to just 11 from 26 flights a day at one time. Illegal constructions are preventing wide body aircraft from landing on the existing runway of Surat airport. Due to this, airlines stay away from starting international flights. There does not seem to be any plan to allocate a new site for a green field airport or a site near Hyatt Surat Airport to Surat Airport for future development of Surat. In January-2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the 353 crore project including terminal building expansion, apron and parallel taxi tracks. These works have not been completed even in three and a half years.
The chairman of the Airport Authority of India was recently sent to Surat for inspection on the orders of the PMO. After that, the terminal building work is going on day and night and only the structure has been erected with expansion on both sides. However, elevation and interior work is still pending. In view of this, it has been again assured that the terminal building will be ready by March 31-2023. While the parallel taxi track and parking apron works are unlikely to be completed even by the end of 2023. In 2019, the Prime Minister said that the BJP government believes in laying the foundation stone of the project and dedicating it to the people. But these projects are running very late.
Surat Airport’s Parallel Taxi Track (PTT) and Apron Project and Terminal Building Expansion Project to make Surat an International Class Airport. Responding to the Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) which is monitored by the PMO, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Executive Director of Engineering (Western Region), G Prabharan replied that PTT’s Phase One work on December 31- in 2022, while Phase Two will be completed in August-2023. Earlier the deadline for completion of the PTT project was set for December-2021.
New airlines are avoiding coming due to such delays in PTT, apron work. The flights which are running are also being stopped one by one. At that time, there is an increased expectation from the Prime Minister to complete these tasks quickly by giving direct orders or by sending active officers in place of inactive officers.