AAI to plans to lease land near 35 smaller airports

New Delhi: The state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) has proposed to lease its city-side land at nearly 35 non-metro airports instead of following a public-private partnership (PPP) pattern suggested by the finance ministry which seeks to improve non-aeronautical infrastructure along with private firms.
The country’s largest airport operator has got the backing of civil aviation ministry which is of the view that airport agency has the right to lease its lands under AAI Act.
The differences over infrastructure development around the airport between the civil aviation ministry and other government departments including the Planning Commission has delayed the city-side works at the smaller airports such as Lucknow, Dehradun, Vishakhapatnam and Ahmedabad.
“The Committee on Infrastructure (CoI) had directed city side development on PPP model earlier assuming AAI would get the required fund for upgrading terminal building and related facilities from private firms. Now that AAI has invested its own funds and almost completed the works it does not need to go for PPP for city-side development,” a senior official in the civil aviation ministry said.
25/09/10 Nirbhay Kumar/Financial Express

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Categories: airports Sep 2010, New Sep 2010