writingonblog uncensored: Airport expansion plans instill fear among residen...

writingonblog uncensored: Airport expansion plans instill fear among residen...: Chennai: Chennai Airport requires 150 acres of land for expansion and this has been one of the major concerns of people from the surroun...

Airport expansion plans instill fear among residents

Chennai:

Chennai Airport requires 150 acres of land for expansion and this has been one of the major concerns of people from the surrounding villages who appeared at the environmental public hearing held for second phase of modernization of Chennai Airport on Wednesday.

Although, the second phase of modernization of Chennai Airport is to be carried out in-house, the focus of the hearing had been on airport seeking 150 acres of land for installing safety and approach lights as people from the surrounding villages, which include Pozhichalur and Cowl Bazaar bared their fear of losing their property.

Chennai Airport Director G Chandramouli, who was present at the ‘Environmental Public Hearing for Second Phase of Modernisation of Chennai Airport said Chennai airport initially sought 200 acres of land and later restricted to 150 acres of land of which 40 acres is defence land belonging to Officers Training Academy.

“We require 110 acres of land and the state government is acquiring the land,” he said at the hearing.

Highlighting their plight, Katheeravan of Cowl Bazaar said that the residents of Cowl Bazaar are always in distress. “We are not even getting brides for our boys despite having sizeable property in the heart of Chennai as most of them fear the land will be acquired by the government,” he said during the hearing, which was attended by Kanchipuram district collector P Ponniah.

Seeking assurances that their land will be not be acquired for the project, Kathiravan also highlighted that Cowl Bazaar has been ignored by officials as most of their civic issues have not been addressed.

J C Arul Dhas, general secretary of Federation of Pozhichalur Welfare Association, which represents 15 welfare associations, opposed any move to acquire land from Pozhichalur for airport expansion. Seeking assurance that their land will not be acquired for airport, he said that it has been more than a decade that Chennai Airport expansion has been making rounds and sought assurances that their land will not be touched.

The district collector informed that they won’t be taking up any land in Pozhichalur for airport expansion. He said 50 acres of land is being acquired from Manapakkam, 30 acres from Kolapakkam and 2.98 acres from Cowl Bazaar.

Interestingly, the focus was more on civic issues rather than on airport modernization with people highlighting the need to have propoer drainage network and solid waste management.

Factfile:

Chennai Airport Phase II Modernisation:

Project cost: Rs 2476 crore

Power requirement: 27.25MVA under proposed modernization

Total plastic and e-waste to be generated: 5,760kg per day

Total water required: 4.1MLD

Works;

--- Demolition and reconstruction of old domestic terminal (Terminal 2)

---- Demolition and reconstruction of old international terminal

--- Reconstruction of airside corridor for seamless integration

--- Interfacing provision in new terminal for future connection of tunnel from satellite terminal

--- Augmentation of contact bays

--- Development of multi-level car park

--- Development of itegrated common user cargo complex, after demolishing the old unused terminal at Meenambakkam

--- Development of contact bays for Category E cargo frieghters

writingonblog uncensored: User development fee for Chennai air passengers re...

writingonblog uncensored: User development fee for Chennai air passengers re...: C Shivakumar @ Chennai: The user development fee (UDF) for domestic and international passengers embarking in Chennai airport will be re...

User development fee for Chennai air passengers reduced to Rs 69

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:

The user development fee (UDF) for domestic and international passengers embarking in Chennai airport will be reduced from beginning of next month. 

The Airport Authority of India has been collecting Rs 166 from domestic passenger and Rs 667 from the international passenger as user development fee. Now it will collect Rs 69 from both domestic and international passengers as user development fee.

This comes on the wake of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India passing an order on that the user development fee is reduced from May 1, 2018.

Once the order is implemented, it will cost the Airport Authority of India revenue loss of Rs 200 crore. Interestingly, on April 18, 2017, Airport Authority had proposed to increase the user development fee to Rs 200 per domestic passenger and Rs 400 per international passenger while AERA had suggested a total waiver of the user development fee in its consultation paper released on February.

The move to charge Rs 69 from both international and domestic passengers was taken after Airport Authority of India submitted that it requires an additional grant of Rs 300 crore to meet its operational requirements.

Interestingly, International Air Transport Association (IATA) has suggested that UDF should be removed as pre-funding of infrastructure investment by users.

“Abusing airport monopoly by making consumers pre-fund investment is more costly than funding through financial markets,” IATA had observed.

Meanwhile, domestic and international landing charges have been reduced by approximately 89 per cent. This would also impact the revenue collected from landing charges which was Rs 305.6 crore last year. Now it will fall to Rs 59.7 crore this financial year.

The move has been welcomed by the aviation industry which suggested eliminating unjustified differentials in landing charges between domestic and international flights.

When Express contacted sources in the aviation sector, they indicated it is too early to decide on whether the fares will be reduced or not. “The rise in oil prices has put pressure on the profitability of airlines and it is unlikely that the airlines will pass out the benefit to passengers immediately. Usually, the airlines will take time to come out with a decision on fare cuts,” said a source from one of the airlines in India.

The fuel throughput charge has also been reduced from Rs 1,774.4 to Rs 196. This comes as aviation industry has stated that fuel throughput charge has no cost basis and should be eliminated. The reduction in fuel throughput charge will reduce the Airport Authority of India revenue from Rs 131.7 crore to Rs 45.8 crore.

Factfile:

1.  User development fee for domestic and international passengers embarking in Chennai airport reduced to Rs 69.

2.  The Airport Authority of India has been collecting Rs 166 from domestic passenger and Rs 667 from the international passenger as user development fee.

3.  Once the order is implemented, it will cost the Airport Authority of India, a revenue loss of Rs 200 crore.

4.  The fuel throughput charge has also been reduced from Rs 1,774.4 to Rs 196.

5.  The reduction in fuel throughput charge will reduce the Airport Authority of India revenue from Rs 131.7 crore to Rs 45.8 crore

writingonblog uncensored: Is Chennai Airport going to be privatized?

writingonblog uncensored: Is Chennai Airport going to be privatized?: C Shivakumar @ Chennai: Is Chennai Airport going to be private? Airport Authority of India has conducted a study to find out the feasibi...

Is Chennai Airport going to be privatized?

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:

Is Chennai Airport going to be private? Airport Authority of India has conducted a study to find out the feasibility on whether to privatise Chennai airport or not, according to a top AAI official.

The official told Express that the feasibility study was conducted six month ago but he is unaware whether a decision is taken to privatise it or not.

“The feasibility study on privatisation was being conducted for airports that has a passenger movement of more than 15 lakh but we have got nothing in black and white,” said the senior airport official.

This comes in the wake of reports that about 15 airports, including Chennai could be put under private management in the second such initiative.

The Airports Authority of India had plans to privatise the operation and maintenance of the Chennai Airport in 2013 and the bids called were called in 2014 which were later withdrawn in 2015.

Sources indicated that since AAI completed a Rs 2,400-crore upgrade of Chennai and Kolkata airports, the then government citing the expensive upgrade did not to go in for privatisation. Four of the six metro airports in the country, which include New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore, are currently run by private operators.

Sources indicated that initially Airport Authority of India had decided to undertake Operation, Management and Development of the airport through a public-private partnership on Operate, Manage, Develop and Transfer basis.

It floated bids on December 2014 calling for Request for Qualification. Representatives from Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, GVK Airport Holdings, GMR Airport Holdings, Egis Avia, Celebi Aviation, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, Pithavadian and Partners and Flemingo Intl Ltd expressed their interest.

Chennai is the fourth busiest airport in the country with a traffic of nearly 15 million. Currently, the airport is implementing the phase II modernisation project at a estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore. The master plan for modernization of Chennai airport is to cater to a passenger capacity of 23 million.

Factfile:

1.  Chennai is the fourth busiest airport in the country

2.  It has a traffic of nearly 15 million and with the modernization of airport under the second phase it will have a capacity to handle 23 million.

3.  Airport Authority of India has conducted a study to find out the feasibility on whether to privatise Chennai airport or not.

4.  This is the second time an attempt is made to privatise Chennai airport

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