Aviation ministry notifies user fee for Kushinagar international airport

State govt already acquired all land required for Kushinagar airport, which would span about 550 acres

The union civil aviation ministry has notified the User Development Fee (UDF) for the proposed international airport at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The prospective developer would be allowed to charge UDF of Rs 1,300 and Rs 200 from international and domestic tourists respectively. The notification was issued on November 8.

The international airport to be built on public private partnership (PPP) model is estimated to cost Rs 354 crore.

Earlier, the private bidders had urged the UP government to facilitate the notification before they decide to participate in the financial bidding of the airport, which is estimated to serve about 2,50,000 tourists annually.

“The notification has come after almost four months of applying to the union civil aviation ministry,” a reliable source told Business Standard.

Now, the redrafted financial bid document, which was cleared by UP infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) Alok Ranjan yesterday, would be forwarded to the state cabinet for approval.

This would clear the way for the start of financial bidding process, which has been delayed multiple times over past many years.

In the preliminary technical bidding process undertaken in March 2013, eight companies, including GMR, Essel, Gammon India, Shreya Infrastructure, Transstroy, Supreme and GKC had qualified for financial bidding.

It would be the country’s first airport wherein the Centre had given in-principle approval for viability gap funding (VGF) of 20%. Additional 20% grant has also been committed from the state government. Hence, the total permissible VGF grant is 40% of the project cost, which comes to about Rs 170 crore.

An old airstrip spanning 97 acres is already present in Kushingar, which handles small aircraft.

Now, the government is aiming to develop a runway of about 3,200 metres, so that it could even handle Boeing 747 flights from Saudi Arabia, Korea and Japan and cater the entire region spread across UP, Bihar and Nepal.

According to a study, about 3,15,000 international tourists come to Kushinagar every year to visit Buddhist monument. The state government has already acquired all the land required for the Kushinagar airport, which would span about 550 acres.