PACT
FOR BANGALORE AIRPORT SIGNED
The government of India signed the concession agreement with
the Bangalore International Airport Limited.
The
agreement grants the rights to build own and operate the greenfield
airport at Devanahalli, 30 km north of Bangalore. The initial
tenure would be 30 years with an option of renewal for another
30 years.
It
also provides for rights and obligations of the government
and the airport, O&M standards including monitoring thereof,
airport charges, provisions for reserved activities like customs,
immigration, security and resolution mechanism for disputes
if any.
The
partners in the Rs 1300 crore project include Siemens with
40 % and Zurich Airport and Larsen & Toubro with 17 %
each. The Karnataka government and the Government of India
also hold 13 % each in the venture.
Signing
of the agreement paves the way for signing of other agreements
including the financial closure. While the total debt of the
project is Rs 600 crore, it has an equity of Rs 350 crore.
The
Karnataka government has issued a soft loan of Rs 350 crore.
The construction is expected to begin by September and would
be completed by the summer of 2007, company officials said.
Signing
of the concession agreement is a historic step in the civil
aviation sector as it would pave the way for setting up of
more such greenfield airports, the civil aviation minister,
Mr Praful Patel, said at the signing ceremony.
"The
aviation sector would now no longer be restricted to flying
but developing airport infrastructure too", Patel said
and added that it would usher in a new era of infrastructure
development.
He
also wished there would be healthy competition between the
developers of the Hyderabad and Bangalore airports over completion
of their respective projects. The concession agreement for
the Hyderabad airport, however, is yet to be signed.
Among
the dignitaries present at the signing ceremony included the
Karnataka chief minister, Dharam Singh, Union minister of
state for statistics and programme implementation, Oscar Fernandes
and senior officials of the Union civil aviation ministry
and the Karnataka government.
