Rajkot Urban Development Authority and Rajkot Municipal Corporation have proposed a plan to extend Rajkot airport runway from current 5,400 feet (1,600 m) to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) to accommodate larger aircraft and to provide connectivity to major cities than Mumbai to cater to a large demand from the manufacturing companies located in Rajkot. This was not possible because even after the involvement of the Airports Authority of India and Civil Aviation Ministry, the former could not negotiate land acquisition prices with Western Rail.
However, the airport now suffers from considerable capacity restraints, due to the expansion of the city and because of the residential and commercial buildings which have been built around it - this renders the plan to extend the runway unfeasible. The present strip is incapable of serving aircraft larger than Airbus 320 family/Boeing 737-800 (which is the largest aircraft operating from the airport). As such, plans for an entirely new airport have been submitted, and civil aviation minister Praful Patel has suggested that a new bigger airport be developed on 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land near the Rajkot-Gondal-Jamnagar highway, around 10 km away from the city and nearer Khirasara village. This proposal is still under consideration.[2] [3]
The authorities have finalised the site for the first ever international airport in Saurashtra, which will be located near Rajkot. The construction of the new airport is likely to begin in late 2012.[4] Airlines like Spicejet have expressed interest in opening routes to new cities like Ahmedabad from the new airport.
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