India plans to construct 100 new airports with an investment of close to USD 60 billion (about Rs 4.2 lakh crore) in the next 10-15 years, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said Tuesday.
Amid the country’s domestic aviation sector recording double-digit growth for more than three years on the back of rising demand, the government is working on ways to bolster the infrastructure for the sector.
«We have plans for 100 new airports to be built in India in the next 10 to 15 years with investments of almost close to USD 60 billion,» the minister said at a conference here.
Currently, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is managing more than 120 aerodromes.
«We plan to put it in the public domain for anyone interested in building infrastructure or airports will get an advanced intimation on where it is going to happen… Our strategy is clear. We have to do it in a PPP mode. We need to have private sector participation,» Prabhu said.
He also said that the government is working on a cargo policy.
The government plans to have a pre-determined tariff structure linked to inflation for greenfield airports.
Currently, there is cost plus tariff structure wherein the rates for an airport are determined every five years, which is known as the concession period.
Against the backdrop of the government proposing a new tariff structure for greenfield airports, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has raised concerns about it.
The IATA is a global grouping of more than 280 airlines.
«We believe that it makes no sense to fix a per passenger yield at the outset of a concession contract that is set to run for four decades.
«Flexible parameters should be set that are regularly reviewed by a regulator. As we know from bitter experiences in Brazil, Australia and elsewhere that selecting the company that simply proposes the highest concession fee does not yield good long term results,» IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said Tuesday.
The IATA has projected that by 2037, there would be almost 520 million passengers flying to, from and within India each year.
«In 2010, 79 million people travelled to/ from/ or within India. By 2017 that doubled to 158 million. That number is expected to treble to 520 million by 2037,» it noted.
The country is also expected to overtake Germany, Japan, Spain and the UK within the next ten years to become the world’s third largest air passenger market.Source: The Economics Times. India
India: New Airport Projects May Be Awarded On Revenue Sharing Basis
The Centre is planning to put in place a system under which new airports coming up in the country will be awarded on the basis of the revenue sharing. According to a Mint report, airport developers will have to compete to win contracts based on the revenue per passenger to be shared with the authority giving the contract. The current system mandates the sharing of a part of the profit from the venture. This will be fine-tuned after receiving industry feedback.
As profit-sharing contracts are prone to disputes, the government has already moved to similar ‘auctions involving revenue sharing’ models in investment-rich sectors such as oil and gas. The Civil Aviation Ministry expects this model to attract more investors as it will likely reduce controversies and litigation.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that the new policy would make air travel more affordable. India is targeting a billion air passengers by 2033-2038.
CAPA India estimates USD36bn required by 2030 for airport infrastructure in India by 2030
CAPA India stated (20-Jun-2018) the fact that most of India’s 40 largest airports are expected to exceed capacity within the next few years while passenger traffic demand is projected to significantly increase means there is an urgent need for airport infrastructure development «of a size and scale attempted perhaps by only one other country», including construction of new terminals, new runways and new airports. According to CAPA India estimates, an investment of USD36 billion to USD45 billion will be required by 2030 to develop the airport capacity needed to support «one of the world’s largest and fastest growing aviation markets».
India: Expansion and development of airports
The aviation sector is planning to undergo some massive developments. The Modi government under the UDAN scheme is not only going to revamp the existing airports but is also planning to develop more international airports with world-class facilities.
Even though Indian airports continue to rank among the world’s best, the existing quality and quantity of terminals and flights are not enough to address the increasing demand for air travel in the country, especially for domestic destinations. The government has given approval to the construction of several new airports.
Recently the government gave nod to the construction of Jewar airport in Greater Noida which will start by the 2018 year end. This airport after its construction will become the second international airport in the national capital region. Another airport that is set for expansion is Goa-Dabolim International Airport.
Another international airport is going to be set up in Mopa in North Goa at an estimated cost of INR 30 billion.
Sikkim got its first airport, the Pakyong airport which will soon be inaugurated. This airport marked the country’s 100th operational airport.
Similarly, there are new projects coming in for Lucknow, Pune, Chennai and Guwahati airports that will see expansion in terminal areas and the addition of adjunct buildings to handle more passengers. The Lucknow airport is being expanded and will be able to handle 2.6 million international and 11 million domestic passenger traffic annually by 2030-31.
Apart from these major developments MoS Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that as many as 25 airports have been added to India’s aviation network under the UDAN scheme. The airports that are set to start operations in the coming months are, Pantnagar, Jamshedpur, Durgapur, Kullu and Cooch Behar. Als,o airports of 13 cities are getting an upgrade, that include Raigarh, Jeypore, Rourkela, Kanpur, Ambikapur, Jagdalpur, Neyveli, Solapur, Jharsuguda, Bilaspur, Mithapur, Utkela and Burnpur.
See:
UDAN-RCS, UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development and «Regional Connectivity Scheme» (RCS) of Government of India.
Source: Media India Group (MIG) & others