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New Delhi, May 20: the civil aviation ministry to explain their stands on the issue.
The Planning Commission, in a meeting of the inter-ministerial group on modernisation of the Kolkata airport had suggested a modular approach for terminal expansion in two phases and said the project seemed “over-ambitious” and would lead to unviable investment.
It also said the AAI’s proposal for a secondary runway at a cost of Rs 35 crore and another Rs 290 crore for construction of ATC towers and upgradation of a railway structure did not look feasible.
The commission also felt that construction of a new terminal building of 1,80,000 sq metre at the Kolkata airport to handle 24.56 million passengers by 2016 is much too big a space as till 2016 most of the space would lie unused. The airport handled 6 million passengers in 2006-07.
On the finances side, the commission pointed that the Kolkata airport had an operating surplus of Rs 33.40 crore in 2006-07. Its ability to absorb and service an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore “is very doubtful”. This would imply an inevitable increase in user charges.
“This modular approach is generally favoured in order to improve the viability of investments, as it would postpone a capital expenditure of about Rs 800 crore,” the commission argued....
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