AAI to spend around Rs 1,400 crore to modernise Chennai, Kolkata airport
After scrapping privatisation plans, Airports Authority of India (AAI) will invest around Rs 1,400 crore in further modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports.
The AAI will take up the second phase of the Chennai airport development works which was earlier planned to be managed by a private player. The AAI will appoint a consultant to integrate the two terminals at the airport, a senior AAI official said. It is estimated AAI will spend more than Rs 1,000 crore on the development of the airport.
“We want to make it a seamless terminal by integrating both the buildings,” said the official quoted above.
At the Kolkata airport, the AAI will develop a new air traffic control tower which will come at the cost of Rs 300-Rs 400 crore, sources said.
The AAI has already invested around Rs 4,500 crore in the modernisation of airports at Chennai and Kolkata. The Union government had planned to develop four airports at – Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad – through public-private partnership (PPP). However, the government scrapped this plan after facing opposition from AAI employees.
Further, the AAI is looking for city-side development at airports at Lucknow, Raipur and Tirupati. “AAI would go for city-side development at these airports which would include parking facilities, hotels, restaurants and other aviation related activities,” said the official.
