Why in news:

• The state government of Haryana is developing the existing airstrip at Hisar airport into a Global Integrated Aviation Hub (IAH) in an effort to boost domestic manufacturing and growth across industries.

Key Points:

• The Integrated Aviation Hub is in line with the Government of India’s goal to strengthen Haryana’s position as an aviation leader in the country.
• The state offers a conducive ecosystem for the development of the aerospace and defence sector, and the government is planning to establish an all-encompassing ecosystem that focuses on manufacturing, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), cargo activities, flight training, research and development, and more.
• According to Captain Rajesh Pratap Singh- Member joint working group , the overall economic development in the state of Haryana is now linked with the development of these five airports and thereby, the policy legislation and conceptualisation of the project has become strategically important. He further detailed that the state would provide an ideal platform and opportunity to grow businesses, which would bring economic and social prosperity to the region and create job opportunities for local inhabitants.

More about the Integrated Aviation Hub (IAH)

• This mega project of government of Haryana, was conceived around six seven years back and over a period of time the traction is picked up.
• As per the government plans, it is going to be mega airport or Aerotropolis project with approximately 7200 acres of land and it will have a twin runway system.
• In this regard, the authorities are going ahead and constructing the first runway which is 10,000 feet and which should be able to handle all large planes. Essentially the thought and the concept behind this had started off with many of these foreign countries or big cities that we go to which are supported by multiple airports on different accesses.
• Essentially, the basic model involves a large airport which may be supported by a satellite airport on the Eastern and Western axis. In this regard, when the state government looked at NCR in the future growth with respect to the Government of India and Government of Haryana’s plans, there was a possibility of creating one airport around Hisar which would be on the Western axis. This airport comprises a huge industrial and manufacturing cluster with NICDC which was earlier DMIC. And this IMC essentially handles aerospace defence, food processing, textiles and other associated and allied industries and future connections which will develop along with the aviation setup. It’s a process and a project with long gestation and it’s moving robustly. In fact, the runway is already 80 percent complete and the state government is hopeful that it will start operationalization of different facilities and stages.