The modernisation and opening up to private operators at 35 of India’s non-metro airports was very nearly dealt a body blow by the government’s planning commission recently. The ministry of civilaviation has clarified that the air cargo management at these airports will be vested with private players as envisaged in the original bidding documents.
The Planning Commission had suggested to take away commercial operations and maintenance of terminal buildings from private participation with discussions to also take cargo management away as well, according to Indian media reports.
The target date for completion of modernisation process of the 35 non-metro airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), is March 2010. New terminal buildings expandable on modular basis are being constructed at Ahmedabad , Amritsar, Aurangabad, Agatti, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Khajuraho, Madurai, Mangalore, Port Blair, Ranchi, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Trichy, Udaipur, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam airports.
Modification and expansion of existing terminal buildings are being undertaken at airports in Agra, Agartala, Coimbatore, Dimapur, Guwahati , Imphal, Jammu, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Vadodara. Out of these 35 airports, tenders for Amritsar and Udaipur have already floated and the ministry is in the process of shortlisting the bidders.
Companies including Reliance Energy, Fraport AG, Tata Power, Lanco Infratech, Larsen & Toubro, Maytas Infra and GMR infrastructure are among the companies vying for the modernisation tenders.