Travellers from Saurashtra and central Gujarat are a step closer to flying abroad without a detour through Ahmedabad. The Union Home Ministry has added Rajkot’s Hirasar airport and Vadodara airport to its list of authorised immigration posts, through a Gazette notification dated November 9, 2026.
Both airports now appear in the airport category of that list, Rajkot Hirasar at entry 40 and Vadodara at entry 41, PTI reported via ThePrint. The list now has 41 airports. The order was issued under Section 4(1) of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. It amends the list first notified on September 1, 2025, Gujarat Samachar reported. UNI gave the notification number as S.O. 6102(E).
The same round of changes added Jaigarh seaport in Maharashtra as a new immigration post and dropped Visakhapatnam airport in Andhra Pradesh and the Gauriphanta land port in Uttar Pradesh from the list.
Hirasar has waited three years for this paper
Rajkot’s greenfield airport at Hirasar has handled only domestic flights since it started operations in September 2023. Its international terminal was close to ready a year ago. Flights still could not start without customs and immigration staff. In November 2025, the Rajkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry asked the Union civil aviation and home ministers to set up both, DeshGujarat reported at the time. The chamber said IndiGo had proposed a Rajkot-Dubai service that stalled for the same reason.
Until then, a Rajkot trader flying to Dubai still has to travel by road to Ahmedabad’s airport, or take a domestic connection to Mumbai or Delhi and clear immigration there.
Vadodara’s terminal is built, but its runway sets limits
Vadodara has been called an international airport for years without a single international departure. In July 2025, Vadodara MP Hemang Joshi raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. He said the airport was equipped for overseas flights but under-used, DeshGujarat reported. A feasibility study he cited named Qatar, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia as possible direct routes. Its runway cannot take the large aircraft used on UK or US routes, Passenger Terminal Today reported when the new terminal was built, so Gulf and South-East Asian routes are the likely first options.
What the notification does not settle
The notice removes a legal hurdle and nothing more. Neither airport has an announced date for international flights, and no airline has confirmed a route, Gujarat Samachar noted. Immigration counters still have to be staffed by the Bureau of Immigration. In 2024 the Centre told Parliament that it only enables new flights from Rajkot and that airlines decide based on demand, DeshGujarat reported.
Until an airline lists a direct route from Rajkot or Vadodara, trips abroad still have to be booked through Ahmedabad, Mumbai or Delhi.
Sources: PTI via ThePrint, UNI, Gujarat Samachar, DeshGujarat
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.