The Civil Aviation Ministry has given its approval for four greenfield airports, with three of them to come up in Andhra Pradesh and one at Dholera in Gujarat.
A greenfield airport is typically built from scratch on an undeveloped piece of land usually outside a city.
The Rs. 1,378 crore international airport at Dholera is expected to cut air traffic load at the current Ahmedabad airport. The airport was also cleared by the Environment Ministry last year.
"The site clearance, which is the first clearance, was given on Monday for the Bhogapuram airport in Andhra Pradesh which is about 40 km from Vizag," Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said on Monday.
The Ministry has also given clearance for a greenfield airport in Nellore and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh under a public-private partnership, he said. The two airports are expected to be "no-frills airports".
Each airport may take at least six years to be completed, according to officials.
While acquiring land for the projects may take three years, the construction is likely to take another three years.
"The Centre will take up more airports depending upon their feasibility," The Hindu quoted the Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju as saying.
The Andhra Pradesh government has announced a separate aviation policy in order to boost investments and infrastructure in the state. The state is also proposing to set up AP Regional Airport Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.
The state has assured 100% stamp duty exemption on land purchase and 100% reimbursement of electricity duty for the developers.
Meanwhile, Dholera airport will come up in 3,525 acres of land owned by the Gujarat government. The airport is expected to have two runways and a terminal building with a capacity for 1,200 domestic and international passengers.
The new airport at Dholera is expected to decrease traffic at Ahmedabad airport, which saw a passenger traffic of 5.05 million in the last fiscal year ending March 2015. The traffic is projected to increase to 6.77 million at Ahmedabad airport by 2023-24, PTI reported.
