State govt scales down Kushinagar project

Lucknow Despite being declared as “non-viable” by private players in the past, the Uttar Pradesh government is in no mood to give up the idea of building an international airport in Kushinagar.
In its latest attempt to make the project viable, the government has scaled it down drastically, bringing down the cost of the project from over Rs 650 crore to Rs 230 crore.
This has been done by mainly cutting down on the land that was to be given as an incentive in Kushinagar and Kapilvasti to the private developer and also some of the infrastructure at the airport such as passenger boarding bridges and the cargo terminal. Even the area of the main terminal building has been reduced from 18,000 square metres to 6,250 square metres.
The government has decided to scale down the project and apply with the government of India for up to 20 per cent viability gap funding. That is not all. The government has also accepted the private players’ objections to its projection of passenger traffic: it has been reduced from four lakh passengers per year earlier to 2.5 lakh. Mainly, the expected footfall of international tourists, estimated at 3.2 lakh earlier, has been reduced to 1.9 lakh.
15/09/11 Maulshree Seth,Maulshree Seth/Express India

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Categories: airports Sep 2011