Chennai and Kolkata airport modernisation decision in a month: Patel

Kolkata, Sept 12. (UNI): The Government will take a final decision on the modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports within a month, while the merger of the state-owned Indian Airlines and Air India will be completed by March next, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Monday said.

"We will take a final decision on the modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata within a month," Mr Patel told a press conference after the Consultative Committee meeting here.

His comments came as the process for modernising both the airports had been put on the fast track with the Centre planning to complete consultations with Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Governments paving the way for drawing a roadmap.

While Tamil Nadu favours private participation on the line of Delhi and Mumbai and the West Bengal Government wants the work to be done by the AAI.

Mr Patel said Kolkata alone would be needing Rs 2,000 crore for modernisation of its airport.

In August last year, the Prime Minister's Infrastructure Committee had given green signal to the proposed modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports. Finance Minister P Chidambaram also said, while presenting the Economic Survey in February this year that an "in-principle" decision had been taken to modernise the Chennai airport through the Joint Venture route.

Mr Patel, however, said his Ministry was yet to take a final stand on whether the Airport Authority of India (AAI) or private parties would fund the proposed modernisation of these two airports.

To a question, Mr Patel said the Center was awaiting the report from the Consultative Committee for the proposed merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. "However, it will be complete by 2006-07 with March being the cut-off month. Once the work is done, the new entity will turn out to be a profitable organisation," he said.

The merger would be followed by an IPO of the new organisation, Mr Patel said.

Dwelling on the Government's plans, the Minister said the AAI was likely to float bonds to raise funds for the proposed development of airports in 35 non-metro towns, including Bhubaneswar, Patna, Ranchi and Guwahati. The airports would be built in the Joint Venture.

The Civil Aviation Ministry was also working on the proposal for constructing airports at Kannaur, Goa, Pune and Navi Mumbai, he said.

Asserting that there was no immediate need for a second airport near Kolkata, Mr Patel said if the existing facility was upgraded it would be able to handle the increased traffic.

"The West Bengal Government wants a greenfield airport in the State and we do not have any problem as such. But one has to assess the viability of the project, which I think is not very bright at this moment," he said.

Mr Patel said the Consultative Committee, at its meeting put thrust on increasing regional air connectivity, including that in the North-East. "The Government is also on way to constructing an airport near Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh," he said.

With a number of private airlines operating in the North-East, the Civil Aviation Ministry was also trying to increase the number of seats for the region, he said.

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