Non-metro airports: ‘AAI ignored’

New Delhi: The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on transport and tourism, Mr Sitaram Yechury, today said an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) headed by the civil aviation secretary had decided to hand over terminal building work of the country’s 35 non-metro airports to public-private-partnership, deviating from a decision of the Committee on Infrastructure headed by the Prime Minister.
After submitting the committee’s reports on tourism in Jammu and Kashmir and modernisation of airports to the Rajya Sabha chairman, Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Mr Yechury said the Prime Minister-headed committee wanted the non-metro airport terminals’ work to be carried out by the Airports Authority of India.
He said such an attitude could cripple the Authority financially, leading to suggestions that it should be privatised. Mr Yechury’s report said the committee “expects the Prime Minister’s Office to issue a clarification” if the IMG had the approval of the Committee on Infrastructure to make the deviation.
The report said existing problems at Mumbai and Delhi airports were the result of the lack of coordination between government agencies and private developers. The committee hoped the lessons learnt at the airports would help avoid similar problems elsewhere in the country. The committee suggested that the closed old airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad could be used for the operation of short-haul flights which had slowly disappeared from the new airports of the two cities.
20/08/08 The Statesman

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008