DIAL hopes fresh funding plan will fly with ministry

New Delhi: The GMR Infrastructure Ltd-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) consortium, which is modernizing India’s second busiest international airport by traffic here in the Capital, plans to raise about Rs4,500 crore in debt from land lease rights for some 60 acres of airport land through a subsidiary, Delhi Aerotropolis Pvt. Ltd, to fund the airport’s development.
This is the second time DIAL is trying to raise funds through land rights via a subsidiary, after the first plan was abandoned over government objections.
Last year, DIAL had created two new subsidiaries and had sought to develop a hospitality district at the airport on a 45 acre land parcel by taking security deposits from realty developers amounting to about Rs2,835 crore through the same subsidiary.
The deposits were deemed refundable after 30 years while the realty developer was expected to pay a token annual licence fee. But, the plan was abandoned after fierce opposition from the civil aviation ministry, which told the operator to freeze the proposal as the financing model was likely to bypass a revenue-sharing agreement the operator had signed with the government when it secured the rights to develop the airport in 2006.
21/04/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Apr 2008