The Hindu : National : Left parties' concerns will be addressed: Praful Patel

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Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

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Left parties' concerns will be addressed: Praful Patel

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 5. Faced with repeated protests from the Left parties, trade unions and airport employees, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel, said today that he would take the Left parties into confidence on any decision relating to modernisation and restructuring of the Delhi and Mumbai airports. "Left parties are supporting our Government. They are an integral part of the Government and I will talk to them again and again. If the previous National Democratic Alliance Government used to rush to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, every now and then, where is the harm if I talk to the Left parties. I want to assure them that all their concerns will be addressed. There is no question of any confrontation,'' he said.

Mr. Patel was talking to reporters after the signing ceremony of a concession agreement for the first ever "greenfield'' airport that would come up in Bangalore over the next three years. The Mumbai and Delhi airports were not being privatised but being modernised and restructured. Asked if Indian Airlines subsidiary Alliance Air would be converted into a low-cost domestic carrier to face the competition in this sector, he said: "Our airlines will face this emerging competition. Let the competition come, we will address the issue.''

Describing the support and attitude of the Karnataka Government as "pro-active'' in acquiring the land for the new airport near Bangalore and completing the formalities smoothly, Mr. Patel said that such efforts would bring to reality a long-cherished dream of the civil aviation sector.

"It is not important how many planes we have but the key issue is the state of our airports which are badly neglected. For foreign travellers who land at any of our airports, their first impression is not a happy one. We have to change all this and build world class airports in India.''

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