A thousand airports are about to take off as the Centre gears up to allow private parties to develop air strips with no equity participation from the government.

Currently, with the sole exception of the Kochi International Airport, all other operational airports are owned by the government. Even the greenfield airports coming up at Bangalore and Hyderabad have a significant 26% government stake.

The scenario is set for a major change with the civil aviation ministry working out a new policy that will allow corporates and other private parties to develop their own airports if they have adequate land at their disposal. Locational advantages and commercial viability would be the only other requirements and the government will provide critical support such as navigation for aircraft without seeking equity participation.

The civil aviation ministry is working on details of the initiative and it will be taken to the Cabinet for approval, highly-placed government sources said.

“Under the new policy, private firms will be entrusted with the task of finding a suitable land, acquiring it and developing it into an airport. The government will get out of the business of land acquisition. We want private companies to fully develop the airport infrastructure while the government takes care of the regulations,” they added.

The new policy, once cleared, will enable corporates such as Reliance, Bharti group and the Fortune group — set to enter retail in a big way — to set up airports at locations of their choice to spruce up logistic backing for their countrywide distribution networks. Such airports would also come in handy for airlines to step up regional connectivity by linking small towns to their domestic network.

The new policy would enable the Centre and the states to get out of the hassle of land acquisition for greenfield airports. Infrastructure could be developed purely in the private sector to help remove delays such as land acquisition and bidding for best partners that held up new airport projects at Bangalore and Hyderabad for years, the sources said.

The government will lay down guidelines for private airports on a liberal basis and may even allow a second airport to come up in cities that already have an airport. However, security and safety conditions would be stringent and projects will not be allowed at sensitive border locations.

While the new policy looks primarily at sprucing up the country’s airport infrastructure so that airlines would be in a position to provide better connectivity, the civil aviation ministry is also keen to allow airstrips purely for personal use.

“If the location adheres to our guidelines and safety conditions are ensured, why should private airstrips be restricted?” the sources said. The big-ticket policy liberalisation is expected to be rolled out quickly once the Union Cabinet okays it.