Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), situated at Shamshabad, is all set to expand at an estimated cost of Rs 2,629 crore, after it reportedly got the green nod from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF).
The nod came from the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), which held several meetings over the issue.
“The EAC recommended the project for environmental clearance. RGIA is located within 5,495 acres of land of which about 2,000 acres has been developed towards airport needs which mainly constitutes of 1,700 acres of airside & 300 acres of landside facilities. No land acquisition is involved as all the expansion activities are planned within the RGIA site area of 5,495 acres,” TNIE quoted the EAC as saying.
Last month, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), which operates the airport, announced that it had converted the entire taxiway edge lights from halogen lamps to energy efficient LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes).
The airside, which is the busiest and the most critical area of the airport, had close to 500 halogen lamps, which covered around 26 km of the area.
The RGIA, which currently serves more than 15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) with close to 400 daily air traffic movements, has a mission to move from conventional energy to renewable energy sources for environmental sustenance. It recently commissioned a captive 5MW Solar Power Plant for its use as part of a plan to become completely carbon neutral.
In April this year, the airport received the carbon neutrality status by Airports Council International, GHIAL said.
GHAIL announced that it was conferred with the carbon neutrality (level 3: neutrality) certificate at a ceremony organised at Doha, Qatar.
The ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation programme was launched in June 2009, and comprises four levels: 'mapping' (level 1), 'reduction' (level 2), 'optimisation' (level 3) and 'neutrality' (level 3+).
Hyderabad Airport achieved levels one and two in 2012 and level 3 status in 2013, before bagging the level 3+ neutrality this year.
IANS inputs