Bangalore, June
6:
The Airports
Authority of India (AAI) will invest Rs 67,500 crore over the next two decades
to get 400 airports operational in the country.
“We have about
450 airports and airstrips in the country at present, and we want to mobilise
as many as possible over this period of time,” Mr G.S. Bawa, General Manager,
public relations for AAI, told Business Line, on the sidelines of the
Global Investors' Meet 2012 in Bangalore on Wednesday.
According to
him, about 125 airports are with the AAI, while 30-35 are civil enclaves. “The
rest are all airstrips which need to be mobilised and made operational by
2030,” he said. The target is a steep increase from the current 84 operational
airports in the country, he pointed out.
The focus for
airport development will be tier-II and tier-III cities, as the “future lies in
local hubs”, added Mr Bawa. The AAI will be banking on innovation to generate
new traffic in these tier-II and tier-III cities, and he pointed out that while
bigger cities become local hubs, smaller destinations will act as sub-hubs.
“The model will be decided over a period of time,” he said.
Funding
On the funding
of these new airports, he said, “We plan an investment of Rs 67,500 crore, of
which Rs 15,000 crore will be the AAI outlay.” AAI is open to getting funding
from various investors, and “we are thinking of our own bonds over a period of
time. Whatever the gap can be filled through that,” said Mr Bawa.
On the dues
that airlines like Kingfisher Airlines owe AAI, he pointed out that all efforts
are being made to realise the dues as early as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment