The Hindu Business Line : Ministry to charge Rs 500 per passenger to fund greenfield airports

IN a move that could provide a fillip to the development of greenfield airports, the Government plans to shortly notify the creation of a separate fund into which the Advance Development Fee (ADF) for the development of such airports is to go.

Confirming this development, senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation told Business Line that it has also been decided that the ADF charges would not be more than Rs 500 per passenger. It is proposed that the fund would be managed by a high-power committee of the Government, sources indicated.

The ADF chargeswill be collected from passengers embarking from a particular airport. The proposal for the creation of an ADF was first mooted in the Airports Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2003 which stated that the fee shall be utilised for the funding or financing the cost of upgradation, expansion or development of the airports at which the fee is collected, or for the establishment or development of a new airport in lieu of an existing airport.

The tenure for the levy of ADF, official sources said, could start even before the commissioning of the project. The funds collected through the ADF would be used to fund the development of new greenfield airports.

The Government has already cleared the proposal for construction of two greenfield airports to come up in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The cost of the Bangalore airport project alone is estimated at Rs 1,328 crore.

The consortium, which is to construct the new airport, includes Siemens, L&T, and Airports Authority of India. Similarly, the cost of construction of phase I of the proposed new airport in Hyderabad is estimated at Rs 1,394 crore.