AAI seeks assistance from govt for loss making NE operations

The Airports Authority of India is seeking financial assistance from the government for its loss-making operations in the North Eastern region.     

"We are losing Rs 100 crore annually on our operations in the North Eastern region. We want some subsidy from the government for these losses for which we are talking to the government," AAI Chairman V P Agrawal told PTI. 

The North East region has 12 operational airports, all run by AAI. The Authority is also seeking levy on airport development fee on 11 airports in the country, including that of Kolkata and Chennai.     

Some of these airports are Trivandrum, Calicut, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mangalore, he said.AAI is undertaking modernisation and upgradation work for air-side of 58 non-metro airports in the country. 

"Work on 80 per cent of these projects has already commenced. We would complete 50 per cent of these projects by March 2010," he said.