The country?s largest airport operator, Airports Authority of India (AAI), has proposed to spend R17,500 crore during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), up 40% from the 11th Plan period, in building and upgrading the airport infrastructure.
While AAI plans to fund major chunk of developmental works through internal accruals it expects to get R5,000 crore from the government as gross budgetary support (GBS).
?We have presented our five-year expenditure plan to the ministry (of civil aviation). Major works include upgrade of communication and air navigation systems and sourcing of security equipments,? said an AAI official.
AAI has projected domestic passenger demand to grow to 500 million annually by 2030, requiring dozens of greenfield airport facilities across the country. It plans to build 28 low-cost airports in the next few years besides modernising the existing facilities.
?We would need to invest R450 crore in greenfield airport projects in the next few years,? the official said.
AAI chairman VP Agrawal recently said that the authority was looking at reviving unused airstrips to meet growing demand.
The airport operator has modernised 35 non-metro airports in the last four years besides taking up major upgrade works at Chennai and Kolkata spending over R10,000 crore. The public sector agency would create additional capacity for handling 25 million passengers in the next 2-3 years.
AAI currently manages and operates 126 airports including 16 international airports, 89 domestic airports and 26 civil enclaves.
“With domestic air traffic growing at 15% annually the airport infrastructure has to be developed to match the demand,” the AAI official said.