The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai may have new international airport

The Karnataka Minister for Finance and Infrastructure, Mr P.G.R. Sindhia, and the Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr Ajay Prasad, at the "Aerodrome India 2005" international exhibition and seminar at Palace Grounds in Bangalore on Wednesday. — G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Dec. 7

EVEN as the bidders for airports' upgradation plan are about to be finalised for Delhi and Mumbai, the Centre is exploring building a large greenfield international airport at Mumbai, according to the Civil Aviation Secretary, Mr Ajay Prasad.

Three sites around Mumbai are being assessed for suitability by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). A separate bid would be tendered after the aero studies.

The proposal was in its early stage and no timeframe has been set as yet for the construction of the airport, Mr Ajay Prasad told newspersons at the Aerodrome India 2005, which opened here today.

No rebidding: As for the six bids submitted for the modernisation of the Mumbai airport and five for the Delhi airport, Mr Ajay Prasad said the inter-ministerial committee chaired by him will vet the consultants' evaluation by next week and recommend a short-list to empowered group of ministers soon after. "We expect the process to be completed by this month-end," he said, ruling out any re-bidding for the projects.

The three-phase upgrading works are expected to begin in 2006 and some of them are to be completed by March 2010. Delhi would be able to handle at least 80 million passengers a year after the upgrade.

Project cost: The two private-public funded projects, with 26 per cent equity participation by the Airports Authority of India, would totally cost around Rs 8,000 crore each - some Rs 3,000 crore in the first phase alone.

These two airports apart, Mr Prasad said, the moves to enhance infrastructure in other 30 large and small airports would totally involve cost of Rs 40,000 crore over the next five years.

The Ministry was looking at various options to finance these, including joint venture with the majority equity participation by a private sector partner; and floating of bonds through the AAI; and leasing out land on the city side for commercial activities to funnel the proceeds into aeronautical activities.

Technical and financial consultants are preparing detailed project reports for each of the airports and 10 reports have been submitted, Mr Prasad said.

The participants: The bidders for the Mumbai airport expansion and modernisation are Reliance-Airport of Mexico; GMR-Frankfurt Airport; GVK-South African Airport; Sterlite group- Airport Paris; D S Consortium-Munich airport; and Essel Group-Turkish Airport Authority. The GVK combine has not bid for the Delhi project.

At the seminar, Mr Prasad said other urgent areas were being addressed. The Roy Paul committee report on the modernisation of air traffic management was being looked at while the M.K. Kaul report on regulatory reforms in relating to the directorate general of civil aviation was expected in February 2006.

The three-day seminar and exposition is organised by PDA trade fairs and Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page