CPI(M) ups ante against airport closure

New Delhi: Even as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is set to inaugurate the swanky new greenfield airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad on March 14, the CPI(M) has kicked up a controversy over the reported move to close down two old airports at Begumpet and Bangalore.
Former CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and CITU secretary Dipankar Mukherjee has written a letter to the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, which is scrutinising the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) Bill, 2007, seeking its intervention to stall the “executive action” of closing down the two airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI). He said the move violates provisions of the Competition Act, 2002.
Mukherjee said the precondition of closure of old airports “goes totally against para 3 of the objects of the bill,” which stipulates “an independent economic regulator, namely, the AERA, may be established to create a level-playing field and foster healthy competition amongst all airports to encourage investment in airport facilities to regulate tariffs for aeronautical services etc.”
18/02/08 Kay Benedict/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: airports Feb 2008