Patel calls meet on April 29 to sort out B’lore airport issues

New Delhi: The opening of the Rs 2,500-crore new greenfield Bangalore airport may be delayed even further after the high court directive that the stakeholders including the Central government via the ministry of civil aviation, the government of Karnataka, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) should look at re-negotiating the concessions agreement signed by them.
The stakeholders will meet on April 29 under the chairmanship of the civil aviation minister Praful Patel to review the agreement and see if anything can be done about the two contentious issues. These include closure of the existing HAL airport and levy of user development fee (UDF) by the new airport.
“Based on the court directive we will go through the motions on April 29 and see if anything can be done,” Ashok Chawla, secretary with the civil aviation ministry said.
It will be negotiations of sorts, as the secretary also said that all the parties would have to offer some compromises and depending on those the concessions agreement may be essentially renegotiated.
A clearer picture is likely to at the beginning of next month by when the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) would issue a licence to the airport.
24/04/08 Shauvik Ghosh/Financial Express

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Categories: Airports Apr 2008, New Apr 2008