The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Building world-class airports key to economic progress, says Kurian

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Building world-class airports key to economic progress, says Kurian

Special Correspondent

Centre should consider constructing new greenfield airports for New Delhi and Mumbai

FRIENDLY INITIATIVES: V.J.Kurien, Managing Director, Cochin International Airport Ltd. (second from right), being welcomed by D.Sudhakara Reddy, Founder & National president, APAI ( right), at the seminar on `Airport Infrastructure-India' organised by the Air Passengers Association of India in Chennai on Friday. From left: Milan Zatakia, National vice-president, APAI and S.N.Subramanian, Joint General Manager & Head-Airports, Business Unit, L & T-ECC Division, Chennai , look on.— Photo : V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: : Speakers at a seminar on "Airport Infrastructure-India" emphasised the need for building world standard international airports. This, they said, was the key for achieving economic progress.

Organised by the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), the speakers led by the Managing Director of Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), V.J. Kurian, outlined how after commissioning the first public-private partnership initiative in the civil aviation sector in 1999, pre-tax profits of Rs.48 crores was achieved only in 2004-05.

The main reason for the project was that right from the beginning, cost-effective measures were accorded priority.

Other major advantages

The other major advantages were the investments made by Non-Resident Indians from Kerala and the airport's service-providers to construct the Rs.300 crore new Cochin airport. "Our dream is to make Cochin airport free of landing charges by 2012 to help send out signals that investments in the civil aviation sector will not become a wasteful exercise and at the same time fine tune the Indian expertise in this specialised civil aviation sector," he added.

He also wanted the Centre to look at constructing new green field airports for Mumbai and New Delhi, which had attained the saturation point in terms of passengers and aircraft movement.

The Joint General Manager and Head Airports Business Unit of L & T-ECC Division, Chennai, S.N. Subramanyan, said the greenfield airport at Devanahalli would be commissioned in November 2007 to serve to five million passengers, at a cost of Rs.1,400 crores.

While the Karnataka Government has provided a financial support of Rs.350 crores, the new Bangalore international airport would become an airport city by itself, merging with the hi-tech Silicon Valley.

Apart from 6-lane road connectivity, a rail link is also being contemplated.S. Subramanyan, General Manager (Operations) of Airports Authority of India, Chennai, outlined the passenger-friendly initiatives taken to decongest the international and domestic terminals.

D. Sudhakara Reddy, president of APAI, appealed to the Central and State Governments to attach greater importance to the civil aviation sector and create world-class infrastructure.

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