Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport
बाबासाहेब आंबेडकर अंतरराष्ट्रीय विमानतळ
IATA: NAG – ICAO: VANP
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Airports Authority of India
Operator
Serves Nagpur
Location Nagpur
Elevation AMSL 1,033 ft / 315 m
Coordinates 21°05′32″N 79°02′50″E / 21.09222°N 79.04722°E / 21.09222; 79.04722Coordinates: 21°05′32″N 79°02′50″E / 21.09222°N 79.04722°E / 21.09222; 79.04722
Map
NAG
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 6,358 1,938 Asphalt
14/32 10,500 3,200 Asphalt
Statistics (2014-15)
Passenger movements 1,401,147 (Increase10.9%)
Aircraft movements 14,042 (Increase8.1%)
Cargo tonnage 6,063 (Increase9.8%)
Source: AAI[1][2][3]

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport (IATA: NAG, ICAO: VANP) is an international airport serving the city of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. In 2005, it was named after B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution.[4] The airport handles around 4,000 passengers per day and caters to four domestic airlines and two international airlines connecting Nagpur to Sharjah, Doha and 12 domestic destinations. The airport spread over 1,460-acres is also home to AFS Nagpur of the Indian Air Force.

History

The airport was commissioned during the First World War in 1917-18. The old buildings were renovated during the Second World War, when it was used as a staging base. Due to brisk traffic, new terminal buildings featuring facilities of refreshment, retiring rooms, restrooms, book stalls and visitor's galleries were constructed in 1953.[5]

Sonegaon airport was the hub of the unique "Night Air Mail Service" wherein four planes left from Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras every night with a mail load from their region and returned to their home base in the early morning, after exchanging the mail at Nagpur. The service was operated from January 1949 until October 1973.[6] Over the years its major traffic was civilian aircraft till the formation of 44 Wing and the transfer of the Il-76 military transport aircraft of the IAF in 2003.[7]

Expansion

It is slated to be the Multimodal International Hub Airport and development work started in 2005. The plan involves construction of a second runway, a new terminal building and a cargo complex through a build-operate-transfer basis. The Maharashtra government offered 400 hectares of land to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in exchange of 278 hectares of land occupied by Air Force Station, Nagpur.[8][9]

The new Integrated Terminal Building was inaugurated on 14 April 2008. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) modified and upgraded the existing building at the cost of ₹790 million (US$12 million). It covers an area of 17,500 square meters and has a capacity to handle 550 arriving and departing passengers during peak hours. The new terminal building has 20 check-in counters and 20 immigration counters. The Integrated Terminal Building is equipped with facilities such as passenger bridges with visual docking guidance system and baggage conveyor system. A car park to accommodate 600 cars at a time has been built. Eight new parking bays were added to take the number of bays to 18. For improving city-side connectivity, a new approach road to connect the terminal building with the main highway has been constructed. To improve the navigation facilities at Nagpur airport, AAI plans to construct a new control tower and technical block with all modern CNS ATM facilities.[10]

Air India MRO

A maintenance-repair-overhaul (MRO) facility, built by the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, occupies 50 acres of land at the airport. Construction began in January 2011.[11] Air India’s MRO unit, Air India Engineering Services (AIESL), which was hived into a separate company in 2013, will start operating the MRO facility by June 2015.[12] The $100 million project is part of a deal between the Air India and Boeing and has two 100 x 100 meter hangars, constructed by Larsen & Toubro, to accommodate wide-body aircraft like Boeing 777 and 747-8 and another 24,000 sq meters area for allied work. Nagpur was chosen for the project because of its central location and its high temperatures, favorable for aircraft manufacturing, as they are away from corrosion and sea water contamination. The greenfield project is Boeing's second in the world after Shanghai in China.[13]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Air ArabiaSharjah
Air IndiaDelhi, Mumbai, Raipur
GoAirBangalore, Mumbai, Pune
IndiGo Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar
Jet Airways Mumbai
Qatar AirwaysDoha

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Traffic Statistics-2015" (PDF). AAI. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Aircraft Movements-2015" (PDF). AAI. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Cargo Statistics-2015" (PDF). AAI. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Nagpur Airport being renamed". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 15 October 2005. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Nagpur District Gazetteer - 1966". Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Indian Postal History 1947-1997". Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  7. ↑ "Warbirds of India — Nagpur". Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  8. ↑ "Transfer of Land to Mihan Project, Nagpur". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 24 August 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur Airport projects to take off". The Hindu Business Line. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "New Terminal building of Nagpur airport to be Inaugurated on 14th April, 2008". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 11 April 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  11. ↑ "Boeing's Nagpur MRO facility to start operations in Q2 2013". FlightGlobal. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  12. ↑ "Boeing: Nagpur MRO unit to be operational by April-June 2015". The Financial Express. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Boeing MRO facility work at Nagpur airport to end by 2012". DNA. 25 May 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2012.

External links


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