No privatisation of Kolkata, Chennai airport
Statesman News Service NEW DELHI, Aug. 11: Ruling out privatisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports on the lines of Delhi and Mumbai, the Union civil aviation ministry today said both these airports would be developed by the state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI).
Announcing this at a meeting with the consultative committee of members of Parliament, the civil aviation minister, Mr Praful Patel, said the AAI would start the work on these mega projects next month.
The modernisation plans of Kolkata and Chennai airports have been cleared by the Public Investment Board and detailed project reports have already been submitted to the government for approval, Mr Patel said.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is likely to clear these projects by the end of this month. The minister said trial runs on the new third runway of IGI Airport would begin from 21 August.
Once this runway gets operational, it would go a long way to ease the air traffic congestion over Delhi airspace. On the requirement for a second airport in Delhi, Mr Patel said a group of ministers (GoM) was looking into the legalities of setting up of a second airport in Delhi in view of the agreements the government had signed with the GMR-led consortium to modernise IGI Airport.
Some members of the consultative committee raised the issue of construction of an airport at Jhajjar in Haryana, close to the national capital. Some said the ministry should not allow any new airline to be given a licence to launch operations or induction of new aircraft till the required infrastructure was put in place.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=12&theme=&usrsess=1&id=218045
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