AAI in talks with US consultant, Crisil on airport privatisation
OUR CORPORATE BUREAU
NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has sought advice from SH & E, a US-based international consultant, and the credit rating agency, Crisil, on the privatisation of India's airports. "We have held preliminary talks with these two companies on how to draw-up the formalities of privatising airports. AAI is considering two options -- an airport can be completely handed over to a private company or some services can be privatised," said Ranjan Chatterjee, chairman, AAI, addressing a press conference here on Saturday.Commenting on the airport policy recently cleared by the Cabinet, Chatterjee said a number of foreign consortia and corporate groups had already indicated their interest in investing in the country's airports. "As per the new airport policy, we can build airports under any management contract. The format can be BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer); a joint venture between AAI and a private party; or even BOO (Build-Own-Operate)," Chatterjee said. The AAI chairman sought to allay
fears of further delays in the modernisation of radar systems at the Delhi and Mumbai airports, a contract which is with the US-based Raytheon Infrastructure Services. "The delay has been a fault of both the Indian side and Raytheon. But now we have their assurance that the Delhi airport system will be in place by January 31, while the Mumbai system will be commissioned by March," he said. "We do not plan to collect any penalties from Raytheon for the delay. Rather then get into these legalities, we are more interested in getting the projects completed," he added. AAI officials pointed out that a `72-hour test' will soon be carried out to test the effectiveness of the new radar system at Delhi airport. On the issue of AAI's stake in the proposed Tata-Raytheon airport at Bangalore, Chatterjee said the matter was pending with the ministry of civil aviation. "Let them give us the green signal, then we will decide how much stake to acquire," he said. Answering queries on the recent strike by the Air
Traffic Controllers (ATCs), Chatterjee said effort was on to ensure lasting industrial peace in the AAI. Steps such as the introduction of productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) were being considered. Highlighting the year's achievements, the AAI chairman said both domestic and international air passenger traffic had recorded good growth in 1997. "While international air traffic grew by seven per cent, domestic grew by 10 per cent," he said. He pointed out that these growth trends were expected to continue in the future. Indian air space, in the period April-August, recorded a total of 150,000 flight movements. In the same period, airports in India coped with 148 lakh passengers and 306.67 tonne of cargo. AAI expects to make a revenue of Rs 1,218 crore in 1997-98 as compared to Rs 1,142 crore last year. Its profit after tax in 1997-98 is expected to be Rs 132 crore, up from Rs 206 crore last year.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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