DIAL files petition in High Court against policy on airport land use

The restriction on DIAL, which operates the IGI Airport here, under the new civil aviation policy from further utilising airport land to provide non- aeronautical services came up for challenge in Delhi High Court on Monday. Agreeing to examine the matter, a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice V Kameswar Rao issued notice to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) seeking their response on the plea of DIAL, a JV of GMR Group and AAI.

The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016, which came into effect on June 15, restricts existing airports run under public private partnership (PPP) from commercially utilising their land for providing non-aeronautical services. However, this restriction is not applicable to future airports run under PPP or the existing and upcoming ones which would be run by AAI, the petition claimed.