The Hindu Business Line : `Enhance capacity of airports to handle foreign trade'

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) has said that the capacity of domestic airports to handle foreign trade in value terms should be enhanced to 40 per cent of the total trade from the present level of 30 per cent.

In a statement the Managing Director, Boeing India and Chairman of the chamber's national committee on `Civil Aviation and Aerospace,' Dr Vivek Lall, said at a time when zero or minimum inventories are the buzzwords across the corporate world, the country has to create strong physical infrastructure to empower trade and industry.

"This is possible only when a strong network of airports are created to serve both the domestic and international markets," said Dr Lall. The chamber was of the opinion that there were over 80 small and large airports that required to be modernised immediately. "A few more greenfield airports should be set up. This will have a multiplier effect on the aviation sector in particular and economy in general," added Dr Lall.

The chamber has estimated that an investment of $10 billion would be required over the next five years to modernise airport infrastructure and create Greenfield projects.

"Innovative funding matrices should be drawn up to plug the resource gap and to reverse the legacy of under-investment in the aviation sector. Private-public partnership holds the key to implementation of such projects in a time bound manner and to tie down the huge resource requirement," Dr Lall said.

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