Two-and-a-half years after the completion of a new $17-million terminal building, the Jaisalmer airport stands empty . Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of this airport, that can handle over 300,000 travellers a year.
India has spent more than $50 million since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights -white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for PM Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
“They (the government) need to realise it's not a case of `build the airport and we will come',“ said SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor. The airline last year ceased flying to a new airport in Mysore. India's ghost terminals were built largely by the UPA, which planned 200 `no-frills' airports, encouraged by rising air travel and the need to connect far-flung regions.
A smiliar splurge in China has left dozens of ghost projects there too. The civil aviation ministry declined to comment on whether the Modi government would stick with the 200-airport growth plan. However, the incentive to grow in less-developed regions remains. On Tuesday , Modi pledged crores of rupees for four new airports in Bihar that goes to polls soon. “The AAI has invested in some airports without any economic logic,“ said Kapil Kaul, Delhi-based chief executive at consultancy Centre for Aviation. Across India, over half of the 100-odd domestic-only airports operated by AAI have not seen a scheduled flight this year, official data shows, though some are older airports designed primarily for chartered planes. AGENCIES
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