Moving ahead with modernisation of non-metro airports, government would in the next two months come out with proposals for development of non-aero side of ten such airports across the country.
NEW DELHI: Moving ahead with modernisation of non-metro airports, government would in the next two months come out with proposals for development of non-aero side of ten such airports across the country, a top official said on Friday.
While the air side would be modernised totally by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the non-aero side of these airports would be developed through private participation, creating shopping malls, food joints and other facilities.
"We will come up with proposals on ten non-metro airports in the next 45 to 60 days on which the parties can respond", Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said at CII's India Aviation Forum.
He said the Infrastructure Committee of the Planning Commission was working on a model concession agreement for development of airports through the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Replying to questions, Chawla said the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority Bill to deal with airport tariffs and other disputes, would be introduced in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament.
Regarding the proposal to impose three per cent import duty on aircraft, the Secretary said the total taxes on aircraft import would now amount to about 25 per cent as the other taxes were three per cent education cess, three per cent special duty and 16 per cent countervailing duty.
The proposal of imposing the import duty took the industry as well as us in the Ministry by surprise, he said.
Chawla said the Civil Aviation Ministry would soon move the Finance Ministry to do away with the countervailing duty as there is no case for it.
He had earlier said the duty was imposed to prevent import of goods adversely affecting domestic production, but aircraft are only imported as they are not produced in India.
Asked about the proposal to hike peak-time operation charges for the airlines in key airports to decongest the airspace, the Secretary said, "We will come to some optimum arrangement in a few days. We will have another meeting in the next few days".
"We have to find ways and means to decongest the airports during peak time and have to find ways to do it. One of them is financial", he said.
Chawla heads a committee, which has made some recommendations including hiking airport and navigation charges during peak hours over Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, though the Ministry feels increasing the airport and navigation charges for the airlines was not a permanent measure.
The Delhi High Court recently issued notice to the Ministry on a PIL challenging the private airlines' move to levy a congestion charge of Rs 150 per passenger to meet the fuel expenses caused on account of hovering over major metro airports for over 30 minutes.
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