After backing out of the race for modernisation and restructuring of Mumbai and Delhi airports in 2005, Singapore’s Changi Airports International is back in India.
Singapore firm will be a technical collaborator for the Durgapur Aerotropolis project
BANGALORE: After backing out of the race for modernisation and restructuring of Mumbai and Delhi airports in 2005, Singapore’s Changi Airports International (CAI) is back in India.
This time, however, the airport operator has returned not as a developer but as a technical collaborator with Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) for a domestic airport (4C classification) at the upcoming Rs10,000-crore (approximately $2.5 billion) Durgapur Aerotropolis project in West Bengal.
Aerotropolis is a commercial district that develops around an airport.
On Wednesday, the airport entered into a technical services agreement with BAPL, a special purpose vehicle promoted by four partners (Pragati Social Infrastructure & Development Ltd, LendLease Co Ltd, Citystar Infrastructures Ltd and Pragati 47 Development Ltd), whereby it will review the master plan and supervise the execution of the proposed airport.
Changi Airports had shied away from the 2005 bid for the two metro airports because of a clause that required foreign partners of the airport consortiums to bear a penalty of around Rs320 crore ($80 million) if they failed to meet standards laid down by the government.
This time round, the airport is going slow on its commitments. BAPL officials said the present technical partnership could evolve into collaboration for operations and maintenance, and later the airport could even bring in investment.
BAPL chief financial officer Parthu Ghosh said, “At this point in time, we are in the initial process of technical collaboration. We are also exploring a tie-up with them for operations and maintenance, and later for investment.”
Under the TSA, CAI, which has been involved in the development of more than 40 airports throughout the world, will study the capacity, land-use plan, passenger terminal layout and development phasing of the air and land side of the airport at the Durgapur Aerotropolis.
It also involves CAI conducting training for senior management of BAPL personnel at the Singapore Aviation Academy. The training programmes would introduce senior managers at BAPL to the technical aspects of developing and managing an airport terminal intended to spawn an aerotropolis.
The airport would be built on 300 hectares, close to one-third of the total area (950 hectares) of the Durgapur Aerotropolis, and is expected to become functional in the next 30 months.
Ghosh said the airport will have one runway and the ability to handle A-320 aircraft. The aerotropolis project, which will have industrial and IT parks, will be completed in five years.
p_sharma@dnaindia.net
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