National

Parliamentary panel: keep existing Bangalore and Hyderabad airports

NEW DELHI: Even as new airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore get ready for commercial operations within a few weeks, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday unanimously recommended that the existing airports in the two metros should not be closed and should continue to be used in such a way that private parties make reasonable profits, the panel said on Wednesday.

Favouring renegotiation of the terms of contracts with the private party in Hyderabad where the new airport is slated to begin operations from mid-March, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, who heads the 31-member Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, told reporters that the government should suitably amend the clause that facilitates closure of the existing airport.

“The committee strongly recommends unanimously and unequivocally to the Government of India that the existing Hyderabad and Bangalore airports should not be closed for commercial operations,” the 131st report of the panel, tabled in both Houses, said.

The new Bangalore airport is likely to be opened later this month. The existing airports are to be closed down the next day of the start of the new ones.

Asked about the financial implications of closure of the two airports, Mr. Yechury said possible revenue implications of such a renegotiation must not inhibit the government from proceeding on such a course in the national interest.

He said the increased air traffic in the two metros and commercial viability of having more than one airport in a city were “enough basis to renegotiate the concession agreements in the national interest, even if there is a cost involved.”

Mr. Yechury expressed the hope that the government would act urgently on the unanimous recommendations of the panel “which is a mini-Parliament” though the government was not under any obligation to accept the recommendations of the standing committee.

The committee kept in mind the traffic growth in recent years. The traffic was over three times more than what it was in the year when the projections for the two airports were made and the agreements with the private parties signed, he said.

“Since the aviation sector is growing in a big way, having two airports in a particular city will be a commercially viable option for the operators,” the CPI(M) leader said.

On the government rejecting a proposal of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to levy a user development fee of Rs 300 for the Ahmedabad and Trivandrum airports, but allowing private operators of the Hyderabad and Bangalore airports to do so, the committee said “The government, which turned down the AAI proposal, is happily agreeing to the demands of the private operators.”

The taxi fare to reach the Hyderabad or Bangalore airports, along with the user fee of Rs 700, “could cost a passenger more than a low-cost carrier’s ticket,” Mr. Yechury remarked adding that the proposed fee should not be implemented.

Answering a query, he said it was “not correct” for the government to allow any operator to charge a fee when there was no airport economic regulator in place. The committee said such a levy would give a negative signal for the upward growth and the overall growth pattern of the aviation sector.

Though the committee was not against private firms making profits, it said that the profit-making PSUs should not be handed over to private players.

The AAI should be given not only adequate opportunity and encouragement in modernising and upgrading airports, but also the financial and operating freedom “enjoyed by a private joint venture company for competing with private players,” the committee said

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