AAI draws new plans for four airports proposed for PPP earlier

Plans to invest around Rs 1,000 cr in Chennai and Rs 400 cr in Kolkata airports

With no bidding taking place under the public-private partnership (PPP) plan for four airports, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to go for the expansion and maintenance of the Chennai and Kolkata airports on its own; the Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports would be put through the operation and maintenance (O&M) contract route.

The AAI is planning to invest around Rs 1,400 crore in the expansion and maintenance of the Chennai and Kolkata airports, said an official. "We have decided to go with the O&M route for the Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports. Singapore Changi Airport and Zürich Airport (Switzerland) have expressed interest. The request for quotation (RFQ) route will apply," said Sudhir Raheja, member, planning, AAI. The authority will be investing around Rs 400 crore and Rs 1,000 crore in the development and management of the Kolkata and Chennai airports, respectively.

The previous United Progressive Alliance government had decided to involve private companies in the development and management of the airports. The current National Democratic Alliance government had made a recent move to bring in the PPP model. It had extended the application deadline for private firms a few times. But no bidding took place, according to recent reports. Speaking about the authority's plans for the Chennai airport, AAI chairman R K Srivastava said, "Now the government has asked us to go ahead with the development and operation and management of the airport." Plans are to restructure the Chennai Airport, by increasing the capacity of the Airport and the air side such as the runway, with an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore.

It may be noted that the Chennai facility has been ailing with development, maintenance and operations related issues, after the expansion happened two years back with an investment of over Rs 2000 crore. With the investment the Airport capacity has increased from nine million passengers per annum to 23 million passengers, adding 14 million passengers per annum.

However, the development was in such a way that the new international terminal and the domestic terminal were on the either ends of the old terminals, which created hardships to the users. The intention was to leave the work for the private player who was expected to join through a PPP model.

With the restructuring plan, the two new terminals will be merged by reconstructing the old terminals, thus improving the total capacity to 30 million passengers, or even 34 million per annum, said Raheja. The Airport has a limitation on the runway side and it would work on the issue to have more take-offs per hour.

The AAI is also planning to construct an integrated cargo complex, which is right now fragmented structure.

"We are in the process of appointing the Project Management Consultant. Then we will decide the timeline for the restructuring," said Srivastava. The restructuring of the remaining portion would be in such a way that it would rectify the structural defects so far the facility had, he added.

The Chennai Airport has posted a profit before tax of Rs 300 crore an revenue of around Rs 1,200 crore, said Deepak Shastri, Chennai airport director.