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Ashwini Phadnis
Madhumathi D.S.

New Delhi / Bangalore, June 9

In an effort to put on the fast track the development of airports in tier II cities in the country, the Centre is expected to shortly give clearance to the first three such greenfields at Shimoga, Gulbarga and Hassan.

The projects are being developed on a build-operate-transfer basis over the next two years by the private sector and the Karnataka Government.

Official sources told Business Line that the projects were set to be cleared at the first meeting of the newly formed steering committee which is scheduled to meet in the Capital later this week. The committee, which is headed by the Civil Aviation Secretary, was set up after the Union Cabinet approved the new policy on greenfield airports.

“The clearance of the projects should be a mere formality. The Ministry of Defence has raised some issues but these should not come in the way of the projects being cleared,” senior Government officials said, without specifying details.

Last year, the Karnataka Government rolled out the country’s first-ever non-metro airport bids for Shimoga and Gulbarga, along with Bijapur. The Bijapur project is to be re-tendered shortly as it did not receive any earlier, sources said.

In Hassan, the 2,500-acre airport project has been awarded on MoU basis with Mr Rajeev Chandrashekar’s venture, Jupiter Aviation Ltd, on design and BOT basis and is expected to be completed by 2009.

In April this year, the State sealed both the agreements for Shimoga and Gulbarga with a single consortium of the Hyderabad-based majors, Maytas Infra and NCC Infra, and allotted 650 acres for each airport.

Maytas and NCC have partnered with Vienna International Airport’s arm, VIE India Project Development and Holding LLC. Over the next two years, the promoters plan to pump Rs 100 crore into each airport project through separate special purpose vehicles - Shimoga Airport Developers P Ltd and Gulbarga Airport Developers P Ltd.

More Stories on : Infrastructure | Airlines | Karnataka

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Govt set to clear 3 minor greenfield airport projects in Karnataka

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