The Hindu Business Line : `Speed up Chennai, Kolkata airport modernisation'

New Delhi May 14 The modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports should be completed on a priority basis so as to ease the traffic over Delhi and Mumbai airports, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, said on Monday.

The Committee report, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday, has recommended that both Chennai and Kolkata airports be developed as international hubs to cater to the needs of the people in the eastern and western parts of the country.

It has also expressed hope that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would complete the modernisation and developmental works of both the airports within a specified time-frame.

The Committee has also asked the Government to explain why during 2006-07, the AAI spent substantial amount of money for repair and maintenance work at the Delhi and Mumbai airports even after these were handed over to the private sector joint venture partner chosen to modernise them.

It has also recommended that the Ministry of Finance "sympathetically" consider and give its approval to the proposal of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to notify aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as a declared good, attracting a union sales tax of not more than 4 per cent throughout the country.

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