New Delhi, May 18:

The civil aviation ministry on Friday put forward a new concept of “merchant airports” in the country with the infrastructure managed by private enterprises and government agencies handling safety and security issues.

“The entrepreneur is expected to set up and operate an airport on the basis of its commercial viability, subject to the safety and security oversight of the government,” an official note said, after an official meeting in this regard.

“Such a proposal will dispense with the requirement for investment of government resources and therefore a more liberal, license-based approval procedure can be considered,” the note added. The government wants to unveil a new policy on airport infrastructure.

Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla chaired Friday’s meeting that was attended by representatives of leading chambers, infrastructure funding agencies, banks, airport operators and state-run aviation companies.

Experts noted at the meeting that there are no international practices in this regard for benchmarks, but given the rapid growth of civil aviation in

India and the need for infrastructure, airports needed to work on commercial lines.

International air traffic has been growing at around 15 per cent per annum, while the domestic passenger traffic has sometimes surpassed even 40 per cent. “This growth has placed tremendous burden on the existing airport infrastructure.”