Kolkata to see AAI’s first mega airport

New Delhi: Putting an end to political bickering over the modernisation of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, the government has decided that state-run airport developer Airports Authority of India (AAI) will undertake the Rs 2,000-crore project.
This will be first big airport revamp that AAI will undertake, as the contracts for Delhi and Mumbai airports were given to private sector developers. AAI is in line to pick up modernisation of the Chennai airport, the last of the four mega-airport projects in the country.
The Public Investment Board (PIB), comprising the secretaries of finance and civil aviation ministries among others, approved the modernisation plan of Kolkata airport on Friday. The plan will now travel to the Cabinet committee on economic affairs for its nod, which is expected to come through soon. The project was also discussed at a meeting between West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday. The airport modernisation is a shot in the arm for the state government, which suffered a setback on industrial development after the Salim SEZ at Nandigram was scrapped.
A statement from the ministry of civil aviation said work is expected to begin in two months. PIB’s decision is a culmination of a process that was started in April 2007 when the government decided that the Kolkata airport would be brought to international standards by AAI.
30/05/08 Financial Express

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Categories: Airports May 2008