The Hindu Business Line : Aviation Ministry mulls policy changes

What’s on the anvil
Domestic user fee to be ‘very modest’
150-km radius norm for new airport may go
Not more than 3 ground handlers from Jan 1, 2009
Business plan under way to use Begumpet airport

K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, March 27 The Civil Aviation Ministry is mulling doing away with the 150-km radius clause to allow a new airport. Besides, the requirement to have the Union Cabinet nod to open an airport or strip might also go in the upcoming greenfield policy.

Waking up to the connectivity bottlenecks in Hyderabad and Bangalore, the Ministry has decided to make airport connectivity a serious issue by mandating it to take up connectivity projects simultaneously with the airport projects.

“The Union Government would provide up to 30 per cent of the cost of the connectivity project to the State Government. Normally, connectivity involves investments nearly double the cost of the airport,” Mr K.N. Shrivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, told Business Line. He was here to take part in a session on ‘Experiences in Airport Development’ at the two-day international conclave Infrastructure Today. “We have also understood that instead of having very big airports, it is better to have small and medium airports,” he said.

User charges

On user development fee (UDF), he said when the UDF for domestic passengers would be levied in the next three months (in Hyderabad), it would be “very modest”.

“People wouldn’t mind paying it. It will be differential, depending on the short or long haul,” he said.

Referring to the Bengaluru airport’s insistence that they be allowed to charge UDF from the first day, he said one should look at the Hyderabad experience.

Investments

Earlier, in a presentation at the conference, Mr Shrivastava pegged Eleventh Plan investments for developing the aviation sector at Rs 41,000 crore. “While the Airports Authority contributes Rs 12,000 crore, the private sector will bring in the remaining amount,” he said.

The growth plan also included building of airports in Pakyong (Sikkim), Cheithu (Nagaland) and Banderdewa (Arunachal Pradesh). The Government would chip in 90 per cent as grant to AAI to build these airports.

Ground handling

When asked about the contentious issue of ground handling, he said the Government had decided to allow not more than three players for taking care of ground handling at airports, keeping in mind the security issues. “they are the airport operators, the national carrier (or a joint venture it forms), and a completely private player,” he said. The new ground handling policy would be effective from January 1, 2009.

Begumpet airport

The Ministry is preparing a business plan to make use of the Begumpet airport that was closed for commercial operations last week. “It will be used for operating helicopter services. AAI will have its second ATC training centre after Ahmedabad. Besides, it will be used for VIP, Defence and un-scheduled aircraft movements,” he said.