The clock on Dholera airport started in June 2022: Rs 1,305 crore, 48 months, operational from 2025-26
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved phase one of the Dholera greenfield airport on 14 June 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 1,305 crore, to be completed within 48 months, and planned for operations from the 2025-26 financial year.
Confirmed by an official document: a government release, a filing, or the company's own published statement.
This is the founding document of the airport story and it is the one nobody quotes. Every later claim about when Dholera airport would open is a revision of this release, and reading it makes the revisions legible. Forty-eight months from June 2022 lands in June 2026. The first aircraft to land was a calibration flight on 4 June 2026 and the airport was not open.
The release also sets out the ownership, with the Airports Authority of India at 51 percent, Gujarat at 33 percent and the central corridor trust at 16 percent, and puts the airport 80 kilometres by air from Ahmedabad airport. Its traffic estimates were 3 lakh passengers a year at the start growing to 23 lakh over 20 years, and 20,000 tonnes of cargo growing to 2,73,000 tonnes.
The actual cost on completion is not published anywhere we can reach, so the table below leaves it unknown rather than repeating the approved figure as though it were the final one.
PIB release 1833823, posted 14 June 2022, records that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Phase I of the new greenfield airport at Dholera at an estimated cost of Rs 1,305 crore, to be completed within 48 months. It is implemented by Dholera International Airport Company Limited, a joint venture of AAI, the Government of Gujarat and NICDIT in the ratio 51:33:16. The airport sits 80 km by air from Ahmedabad airport, is planned for operationalisation from 2025-26, with initial passenger traffic estimated at 3 lakh a year growing to 23 lakh over 20 years and cargo at 20,000 tonnes growing to 2,73,000 tonnes.
| What | Figure | Unit | As of | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approved Phase I cost | 1,305 | INR crore | 2022-06-14 | CONFIRMED |
| Completion window | 48 | months from approval | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Shareholding | AAI 51, Gujarat 33, NICDIT 16 | percent | 2022-06-14 | CONFIRMED |
| Planned operationalisation | 2025-26 | financial year | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Initial passenger estimate | 300,000 | passengers a year | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Passenger estimate at 20 years | 2,300,000 | passengers a year | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Initial cargo estimate | 20,000 | tonnes a year | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Cargo estimate at 20 years | 273,000 | tonnes a year | 2022-06-14 | TARGET |
| Actual cost on completion | UNKNOWN | INR crore | UNKNOWN |
Last verified: 11 August 2026. Read the status column this way. CONFIRMED means the named document states the figure. REPORTED means a credible outlet states it and no document confirms it. TARGET means somebody is aiming at it. UNKNOWN means no source we hold gives it, and we would rather leave the row empty than fill it with an estimate.
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Several of these documents are large PDFs on government portals that move without notice. Where a document has no stable deep link we cite it by its number and date so it can be found again. See the source register for what each document is and what we took from it.
If one of these links has moved or we have read it wrong, write to [email protected] and we will fix the entry and say so on the corrections page. For how we decide what counts as confirmed, see how we source and correct. For the full dated history of the region, see the Dholera timeline. For any term above you do not recognise, see the glossary.