Merchant Airports can save economy loss of Rs 2 lakh cr

New Delhi, May 23 (UNI) According to estimates by an industry body, merchant airports can efficiently cater to civil aviation requirement on feeder routes and integrate their economies with one another by efficiently fetching cargo from one place to another and save economy a loss of minimum two lakh rupees crore per annum.

In a note submitted to Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot said out of 450 airstrips and smaller airports about 200 are totally under utilised and can be handed over to private sector which can turn them into merchant airports, with each such an airstrip fetching the government a revenue of Rs 100 crore on an average.

Mr Dhoot has urged the Ministry to lease out at least 200 airstrips and airports for a period of 66 years to private airport developers to give them a modern shape of merchant airports out of 450 such airstrips and airports that India has and attract Rs 20,000 crore private investments and save economy a loss of two lakh crore rupees per annum to transport cargo on feeder routes.

The chamber has also estimated that huge amount of losses take place particularly in area of fruits, vegetables and other farm produces because the raw material cannot be transported to food processing units and merchant airports could be ideal way for transporting such items, besides creating a demand for civil aviation on feeder routes.

Currently, around 95 per cent of civil aviation demand and cargo transportation take place from metros.

This is despite that India has such a large and huge number of airports and airstrips with a majority of which are totally under utilised.

Mr Dhoot said the chamber has received over 100 enquiries from various airport developers that are interested to turn the suggested airstrips into merchant airports, requesting it to take up the matter with government.

Following receipt of such requests, it has taken up the issue with Secretary, Civil Aviation with the hope that the government will favourably consider its request and act fast on it so that faster action is possible for turning the air strips into merchant airports.

Assocham views, domestic passenger traffic will reach 150-180 million by 2020, with international traffic in excess of 50 million.

The total aircraft fleet is likely to reach 1000, including replacement of the current fleet of 275 aircraft, with an estimated value of 80 billion dollars.

India's airports handled 51.0 million domestic passengers in 2005-06, posting growth of 28 per cent year-on-year, and 22.4 million international passengers, up 15.1 per cent.

Since airport is an infrastructure issue, it needs immediate attention and timely closure of the projects.

The chamber recommends a Single Window Clearance System where one agency becomes the nodal authority for approvals and is responsible for getting approvals and clearances from security, air traffic control and other regulatory hassles including clearances land from the State Government and Local Authorities.

It also stressed the need that any Greenfield or Brownfield project should have a very clear time frame for closure that should be announced.

Violation of these guidelines should also be followed by heavy penalty, which may also be put in public domain.

The chamber feels that the Ministry should ensure the avoidance of a monopolistic or a duopolistic market scenario in the sector. It may lead to a cartel, which adversely affects the inclusive growth as announced in the budget.

As witnessed in the Telecom Sector, the Ministry of Civil Aviation should create a policy on Single Route as seen in telecom.

All these policy initiatives may create a conducive environment for potential investors to look at this Industry for which the above measures are the first steps towards developing Merchant Airports.

UNI