Travel & Tourism News

NCR's second airport at Jewar

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju confirmed that the Centre had given an in-principle nod to the greenfield project of the National Capital Region (NCR)'s second airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

It is about 100 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) and would be built on a public-private partnership model at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore with at least one runway operational within 6 years.

At a meeting between the Uttar Pradesh government and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, the state had promised to provide 3,000 hectares. "The first phase will be built on 1,000 hectares," Raju said.

Now, the UP government has been asked to do a techno-feasibility study of the airport within a year, after which bids will be invited for the project.

Fuel contamination forces flight to return to Kolkata

On July 7, 2 flights which took off from Kolkata after refueling, had to return soon because the pilots got a fuel warning.

"Puzzled about the return, as the warning had come after fuelling, the airline got the fuel tanks emptied. The drained out aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was checked and was found to have water contamination," said a source. The airline then took ATF from a big oil marketing company (OMC) at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport instead of its regular, smaller OMC there. The flights took off after this.

The airline did not comment anything on the same. This is not astonishing as ATF is the sole biggest cost factor for Indian carriers and airlines would not want their relations with OMCs to be affected.

Airlines and airports are awaiting the examination results of Kolkata ATF water contamination so that preventive measures for recurrence of such an issue could be taken.

Revision of expressway, NH speed limits

Soon, the speed limits for different categories of vehicles plying on national highways and expressways shall be decided on by the road transport ministry.