Private players to retain cargo management at non-metro airports
24 Jun 2008
New Delhi: Air cargo management at 35 non metro airports will remain vested with private players, as envisaged in the original bidding document, according to ministry of civil aviation officials. The clarification comes even as the government is mulling changes in the original bidding structure.
New terminals are currently being built, or existing buildings are either being modified or expanded at these airports.
Under the original request for qualification, the ministry had said that it would award the winning party the right to carry out commercial operations, the maintenance of terminal buildings, cargo management and city-side development.
Recent discussions with the Planning Commission had considered the possibility of excluding commercial operations and maintenance of terminal buildings from private participation. Ministry officials said discussions had also considered the possibility of taking cargo management away from the ambit of private participation as well.
The ministry of civil aviation has now clarified that air cargo management at these airports will remain vested with private players, as envisaged in the original bidding document.
The target date for completion of modernisation process of the 35 non-metro airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is March 2010.
New terminal buildings expandable on modular basis are being constructed at Ahmedabad , Amritsar, Aurangabad, Agatti, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Khajuraho , Madurai, Mangalore, Port Blair, Ranchi, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Trichy, Udaipur, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam airports.
Modification and expansion of existing terminal buildings are being undertaken at airports in Agra, Agartala, Coimbatore, Dimapur, Guwahati , Imphal, Jammu, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Vadodara. Out of these 35 airports, tenders for Amritsar and Udaipur had already floated and the ministry is in the process of short-listing the bidders.
