Gujarat may relax tax on Air Turbine Fuel for intra-Gujarat air operations in new Aviation policy, said Vipul Mitra, Secretary (Tourism, Pilgrimage Dev.& Devsthan Management) Government of Gujarat speaking during discussion at FICCI-Gujarat Tourism conclave, held at Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Mitra said the state government has recently formed a company GUJSAC and state’s all aviation related assets are transferred to this company. GUJSAC will work on Gujarat Maritime Board(GMB) model. In last 10 years, GMB successfully worked on Special Purpose Vehicle model in port sector and yielded superb results. Similarly GUJSAC would work with private partners and give a boost to Gujarat’s aviation sector through SPV BOT model.
According to Captain Chauhan of GUJSAC(Gujarat State Aviation Company), the company has started working on Palitana, Ambaji, Dwarka and Ankleshwar airport projects. Presently land acquisition activities are going on at local level. These airports would be built in private partnership.
Gujarat government signed four MOU in aviation sector in year 2007 and 13 MOU in year 2009 during Vibrant Gujarat Global investors Summit. Of this, works on 11 MOUs are in procedure.
Capton Chauhan says:GUJSAC would facilitate single window clearance in aviation sector to investors wanting to invest in aviation sector of Gujarat. Gujarat has 12 civil airports, 3 defense airports and 2 private airports. The government of Gujarat controls three airports in the state: Mahesana, Amreli and Mandvi.
Gujarat is connected with 15 cities through air route, six of them are located outside India. GUJSAC has planned new airfields at Palitana, Mandvi, Morbi, Rajkot, Ankleshwar, Parsoli(near Navsari), Rajpipala, Ambaji, Dwarka and Dholavira. GUJSAC also plans taluka level helipad near express highways for air-lifting of patients. There is only one helicopter training facility in India as of now, the GUJSAC is planning to set up second such facility of the country in Gujarat. Air training institutes are planned at Deesa and Keshod. Air sports activities like gliding, para sailing, wind tunnel experience are planned at Rajpipala.
Over 550 planes pass everyday over Ahmedabad’s sky. The government is exploring ideas on how these planes can be halted in Ahmedabad and passengers could be converted into tourists on short visit, Chauhan said.