Passengers at Kolkata & Chennai airports may have to shell out more

New Delhi: The Airport Authority of India is planning to slap user charge on passengers flying out from Chennai and Kolkata to make up for a steep rise in the two airports’ modernisation costs, a civil aviation ministry official said.
“We may propose to the Public Investment Board (PIB) for levying development fee at Kolkata and Chennai airports,” said the official who requested not to be named.
The revised estimate of developing the two airports is Rs 5,000 crore now, up from the earlier estimate of Rs 3,750 crore, he said.
As per the original plan, state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI) was to bring 80% of the cost through internal accruals and the remaining was to be raised through commercial borrowings.
While the development cost has increased, airport revenues have fallen due to a sharp decline in air traffic, making it a double whammy for the authority.
It is currently facing a revenue shortfall of Rs 5,000 crore, which it plans to make up through issue of infrastructure bonds or collecting development fee at various non-metro airports, including Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy and Ahmedabad, the official said.
AAI had earlier estimated a cost of Rs 1,942 crore for modernisation of Kolkata airport and Rs 1,808 crore for Chennai airport. Now, they are pegged at Rs 2,500 each.
15/06/09 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009