The Hindu Business Line : Non-metro airports: Govt to select partners by year-end

New Delhi April 16 The Government plans to select the joint venture partners or private consortium that would take up the development of the 35 non-metro airports by the end of the year.

"The process of selection of joint venture or private consortium for development of individual airports or airports in a cluster approach will be finalised by December this year," a senior Government official said.

Consultants

The Government has already appointed Capital Fortunes, Hyderabad, as consultants for preparing the project reports for development of 12 non-metro airports in the southern and western parts of the country.

In addition, UTI Bank, Mumbai, has been given the mandate to prepare similar reports for 12 airports in the north and north-eastern region.

The city side development at these 24 airports will be done through the public-private partnership route. The land use recommended by the global technical advisors and international financial consultants allows construction of hotels, convention centres, food courts, flight kitchen, petrol pumps, hospitals, shopping malls, hyper marts, golf courses and cargo warehouses among others.

The selected parties would however, have to abide with the provisions of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Act while making use of the land, sources said.

It is estimated that the development work at all the 35 airports will cost Rs 4,662 crore, monies that are to be generated through internal resources, officials said.