Airport project for Nagaland has potential but hiccups persist

DIMAPUR, AUGUST 10: As is the case with most of the (few) major development projects to have landed in Nagaland, the recently approved Chiethu Greenfield Airport at Kohima also comes bearing the fingerprints of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the 11th Prime Minister of India. It was after he took residence at 7 Race Course Road that Vajpayee delivered the Cheithu Greenfield Airport project as a political commitment to the state of Nagaland. In infrastructure, greenfield means new projects or activities on unused land. On the other hand, brownfield projects refer to upgrade or change to an existing one. On July 26 last, the lone representative to the Lok Sabha from Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio had written to Prime Minister, Modi expressing “deepest appreciation to government of India for approving the development of Chiethu Greenfield Airport in Kohima”. It has taken the fourth Prime Minister after Vajpayee to turn that political commitment into the hard currency of development. The intervening years have been mischievous, to say the least. The Chiethu Greenfield Airport project ran into roadblock in the initial years, soon after New Delhi had approved the setting up of a greenfield airport at Kohima. In 2013, the government of India decided that the location of Cheithu Greenfield Airport had many disadvantages. Back then, New Delhi had decided that the “construction of Greenfield airport for ATR aircraft with huge investment is economically unviable”. As a result, the government of Nagaland was advised to “explore the possibility of (availing) any other site near Kohima, suitable for at least Airbus a320 operation.” A typical Airbus a320 aircraft normally seats 150 passengers in a two-class cabin, while a single ATR aircraft can seat up to 78 passengers in a single-class configuration. Thus as an alternate location to Cheithu, the state government identified another site at Rüzaphema village. A “pre-feasibility” study was conducted at Rüzaphema by the airport authorities in 2014, according to Mughavi Zhimo, the director of Dimapur airport. He told Eastern Mirror recently that two key features had emerged from the study. One was that no wind/metrological data of the location were available to the team from Airport Authorities of India (AAI). The state government was asked to produce the required data. But till date, the airport authorities have not received the data, Zhimo said. The other observation was that the proposed site at Rüzaphema fell within 150 km (air distance) radii of four other existing AAI airports of the region. Prior to the approval of the new Civil Aviation Policy in July this year, the ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) did not permit new airports to come up within 150 km of an existing one unless the existing one was saturated in terms of handling passenger traffic. So the proposed site at Ruzaphema was within 150 km radii of airports at Jorhat, Silchar, Imphal and the existing one at Dimapur. Also, airspace is not controlled by the Aviation ministry in India. It is controlled by the Defence ministry. That is the reason why flights to and from the existing airport at Dimapur have to take the Imphal-Silchar route in order to navigate the no-fly zone inside Nagaland’s airspace. The no-fly zone, which is a prohibited airspace where aircrafts are not permitted to fly, has been applied because of the existence of an Airforce station at Tezpur, Assam. Diverting the flight route doubles the flight distance between Dimapur and Guwahati. According to Zhimo, even the proposed location of Cheithu Greenfield Airport comes under the 150 km radii. While clear details are yet to emerge, it would appear that the new Civil Aviation Policy has played a significant role in Cheithu Greenfield Airport getting the approval recently. While the old policy forbade greenfield airports within a 150 km radius of existing ones, the new policy approved in July this year takes a much more flexible approach. According to the new one: “AAI may be suitably compensated by government of India and/or the state government or the private sector airport operator in case a new greenfield airport is approved in future within a 150 km radius of an existing operational AAI airport (not applicable to civil enclaves)”. So the new policy permits new greenfield airports as long as the existing ones are duly compensated. The new policy also states that compensation would be considered only if the capacity of the existing AAI airport does not reach saturation point, in the year of commissioning of the new project. “As an alternative to compensation, AAI may be given option at the discretion of the airport developer to either have the right of first refusal, or equity participation between 26% to 49% in the new airport or AAI may be allowed to form JV (joint venture) with the participating state government. Once the options are given to AAI, and if AAI chooses not to avail of any of these options, then no compensation will be due,” the policy states. Development activities For the last one and half year, the authorities of Dimapur airport have been introducing various development activities inside the airport, according to Zhimo. “We have been making huge investment to develop and upgrade the airport”. Some of the development projects initiated recently: 1) Upgrade of the approach road to airport 2) Installation of LED bulbs on airport terminal building offices 3) Streetlights from the airport up to the National Highway 4) Installation of signage on terminal building and National Highway junction 5) Construction and repair of perimeter roads 6) Ongoing construction of protection wall for DVOR (Doppler vhf Omni directional range) facility against soil erosion towards Chathe river 7) Installation of free Wi-Fi facility, CCTV cameras and SBI ATM booth 8) Allocation of works for construction of toilets in car parks 9) Ongoing construction of a canopy in front of the terminal building Proposals for other development works including installation of air-conditioners inside the terminal building and resurfacing of the runway have been sent to the AAI, Zhimo informed. Also in comparison to 2014-15, the passenger traffic for the period 2015-16 has “more than doubled”, Zhimo shared. “There are lots of potentials for growth in traffic and in cargo.” Pressing problem Zhimo also identified one pressing problem – the solution to which, he said, was in the “domain of the state government.” For years the Dimapur airport authorities have been asking the government of Nagaland to provide land in order to expand the existing runway strip. Aviation guidelines require a runway strip of 300 metres, 150 metres each on either side of the central line of the runway strip. The existing strip in Dimapur airport does not meet this requirement. According to Zhimo, the airport authorities need the land for expansion, urgently. Dimapur airport has been licensed by the Director General of Civil Aviation, which according to Zhimo, is not an easy thing. But this licence is under threat because of the problem with the existing runway. To protect the licence, the airport authorities have requested the DGCA “for temporary exemption” till December 31, 2017 “to make the land available for runway strip”. If the runway strip is not expanded as per Aviation guidelines within this period, the Dimapur “airport licence may not be renewed and all commercial flights to Dimapur may be stopped”, Zhimo said. To complete the expansion of the runway strip, it needs land towards Aoyimti, Hollohon village, 173 CRPF camp and ARTC&S site. Zhimo also requested the Dimapur district administration to “look into the problem of land encroachment and building activity towards Chathe River”. These activities pose threat to the “safety and security of airport operation”, he reasoned.