DIAL seeks Rs2,000 cr in sops to fill gap in capital expenditure

New Delhi: The operator running New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd (DIAL), has sought relaxations on taxes from the Union government and permission to levy a new airport development fee on passengers that will together amount to a potential benefit of around Rs2,000 crore.
This benefit, if it receives government approval, will help the GMR Infrastructure Ltd-led consortium to meet a gap it is facing in its capital expenditure plans for the airport.
DIAL is readying the Delhi airport at an estimated cost of Rs8,890 crore ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 with the construction of a new passenger terminal, a new runway and hotels at the airport site, complemented by a metro rail link connecting the airport with Connaught Place, a central business district in the Capital, to be developed by Delhi Metro Railways Corp. Ltd (DMRC).
According to an estimate in 2006, when the airport was privatized, the development of the Delhi airport was to cost Rs7,961 crore. This however, has increased now by around Rs1,000 crore or nearly equal to the cost of creating three new airports such as the ones commissioned at Bangalore and Hyderabad this year.
DIAL also wants the government to pitch in funds for construction of the metro link to the airport, according to a senior government official familiar with the process, who did not want to be named.
It wants to levy Rs300 as a so-called airport development fee on each outbound domestic passenger from the Capital besides Rs1,000 each on those flying international routes for a period starting January 2009 until December 2011. Such a passenger fee alone will likely result in revenues of over Rs1,400 crore for the operator.
26/11/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008