Sindhudurg Airport , also known as Chipi Airport, is a domestic airport serving the city of

Sindhudurg Sindhudurg Fort (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is a historical fort that occupies an island in the Arabian Sea, just off the coast of Maharashtra in Western India. The fort was built by Shivaji Maharaj.The fortress lies on the sh ...

Maharastra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdivi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located at Chipi-Parule in

Vengurla taluka Vengurla is a town in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, India just north of Goa. It is surrounded by a semicircular range of hills with lush green foliage mainly of cashew, mango, coconut, and different kinds of berry trees. The hills of Dabh ...

, located from the nearest city of

Malvan Malvan (also written as Malwan) is a town and ''taluka'' in Sindhudurg District, the southernmost district of Maharashtra State, India, well known for the historically important Sindhudurg Fort. Malvan ''taluka'' consists of villages such as ...

and from Sindhudurg. Construction was completed by the second half of 2018 and a

test flight Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...

from

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

landed on 12 September 2018 on the occasion of

Ganesh Chaturthi Ganesh Chaturthi (ISO: ), also known as Vinayak Chaturthi (), or Ganeshotsav () is a Hindu festival commemorating the birth of the Hindu god Ganesha. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay idols privately in homes and p ...

. The airport was formally inaugurated on 5 March 2019. Currently, Alliance Air is the only airline operating flights from Mumbai. Commercial flights started at the airport from 9 October 2021.

History

IRB Infrastructure IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited (formerly ''IRB Infrastructure Developers Private Limited''), is an Indian highway construction company headed by Mr. Virendra Dattatraya Mhaiskar. It was incorporated in 1998, with its headquarters in Mum ...

won the bid to develop the airport in 2009 for a concession period of 95 years. The project received environmental clearance in March 2012. Work on the airport was completed in the second half of 2013, and was expected to be completed by August 2014, but had been delayed for years because of issues in acquiring private land, among others. After overcoming a series of delays, the airport was finally ready and launched civilian operations on 9 October 2021. Alliance Air started its operations with flights from

on 9 October 2021. Other airlines have also started planning seasonal flights to the airport from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

, and

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

Structure

The airport was built by IRB Sindhudurg Airport Pvt. Ltd. on a

build–operate–transfer Build–operate–transfer (BOT) or build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) is a form of project delivery method, usually for large-scale infrastructure projects, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the public sector (or the priva ...

(BOT) basis for the

Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is a project of the government of Maharashtra state in India and is the leading corporation of Maharashtra. It provides businesses with infrastructure such as land (open plot or built-up spa ...

(MIDC). The airport was initially planned with a 3170 metre long runway at a cost of Rs. 175 crores. It is spread over 275 hectares and the 2500 metre

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

can accommodate aircraft like the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

and

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

. The airport terminal building can handle 200 departing and 200 arriving passengers during peak hours.

Airlines and destinations

References

Airports in Maharashtra Sindhudurg district Environmental controversies {{India-airport-stub

History

Structure

Airlines and destinations

See also

References