Smaller airports' city side to get private facelift

New Delhi: India’s rapidly increasing air travellers will in a few years have better facilities and flying experience even at the smaller airports as the government has approved cityside development of non-metro airports through private participation, which will help raise funds for their modernisation.
The Airports Authority of India, or AAI, will lease out land around the airports for 30 years, extendable by another 30 years, for some upfront payment and yearly rentals.
“The ministry will issue formal orders to the authority next week and city-side development of 10 airports in Phase-I will be undertaken, to begin with,” a ministry official told ET.
These airports include Ahmadabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Amritsar, Indore, Vishakhapatnam, Guwahati and Bhubaneshwar.
The ministry has, however, clarified that maintenance of the terminal building will not be included in the scope of city-side development of the airports, clearly indicating that the intent is not to privatise these airports on the lines of those in Delhi and Mumbai.
20/09/10 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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Categories: airports Sep 2010