Kerala government gets Rs.17.76 crore profit from Cochin airport

Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), the country's first greenfield airport in the public-private partnership mode, Wednesday handed over a cheque of Rs.17.76 crore to the Kerala government as its share of profits for the last fiscal.

Excise Minister and CIAL Director K. Babu handed over the cheque to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the CIAL chairman.

"Each and every investor in CIAL, including the state government has by now recovered 132 percent of their investment, by way of dividends that have been received by them," Chandy told reporters here.

In the last fiscal, CIAL had made a profit of Rs.123.37 crore after tax , which was 11.68 percent higher than that for the 2012-13 financial year.

CIAL Managing Director V.J. Kurian said a new terminal costing Rs.850 crore will be functional in two years' time.

CIAL has been showing consistent growth since its inception in 1999 and is paying dividends since 2003-04.

It has an investor base of 11,000 individual investors from 30 countries and the total paid up capital of the airport is Rs.306.06 crore, of which the Kerala government has invested Rs.98 crore.

Kurian said CIAL has been talking to a Singapore- based company to do the ground handling.

"No decision has been taken as yet which company should be appointed as the third ground handling agency," he said, adding there is no move to replace Air India.