Management

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Towards greenfield airports

Rapid development in all spheres, accompanied by rising aspirational levels has paved the way for a new India. In the aviation sector too, the advent of greenfield airports has thrown the spotlight on high service levels, quality and world-class facilities. By Anupama Sushil

Developing an airport requires a long gestation period. At a time when India is expecting to add aircraft worth US$ 100 billion by the year 2020, it becomes necessary to invest in infrastructure. Airport infrastructure has just started to get better, but a lot still needs to be improved upon. Airport modernisation and building new airports are therefore things that still need to be worked upon.

Greenfield airports would be especially useful for commercial activities like setting up cargo hubs thereby providing a thrust to cargo and freight handling alongside passenger services. A greenfield project is one where a private entity or a public-private joint venture builds and operates a new facility where the focus is on quality services and world-class facilities. Hence, extensive planning is required to ensure proper connectivity and infrastructure.

To ensure this, an inter-ministerial group from the civil aviation ministry drafted a guideline for setting up greenfield airports. It was decided that the airports would be set up either by the state governments themselves or as joint ventures. The airports that are being set up across the country by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are being constructed through public-private partnerships (PPP) like the Hyderabad airport by GMR and Bangalore airport by JVK.

While a few of the greenfield airports are marked, the government has planned six more greenfield airports in metro cities. Under the 11th plan, the approximate investment made for developing airports is over Rs 40,000 crore, both from public and private sources, and this includes the greenfield airports, that will divert traffic from the existing airports. The Hyderabad airport has already started operations and all civil aviation operations at the older airport have been halted. The Bengaluru airport will also help cope with the city's increasing air traffic.

Their share of problems

While the Bengaluru airport is estimated to handle close to 11 million passengers every year, the Hyderabad one is commissioned to handle 12 million passengers. Evidently, both of them will bring with them their own set of problems. For instance, accessibility to the Bengaluru airport is a big concern. This means that the government will now have to work out a dedicated route for passengers to get to the airport. The international airport is about 35 km from the city. The state government is now working on a peripheral ring road, a high speed rail link and an express highway. The dedicated rail link project is expected to be completed by 2011.

Another major concern is the development fee that the passengers will have to bear under the user development fee. This was not levied for the modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports. But as far as the greenfield airports are concerned, BIAL has sent a proposal to the Union civil aviation ministry seeking to levy a development fee on both outgoing domestic passengers and international passengers.

The Hyderabad airport has decided not to levy any such fees. Therefore, there is a discrepancy in the laws. The traveling costs involved in reaching the airport will be another major concern for passengers. So taking all these costs into consideration, air travel to neighboring metros such as Chennai and Hyderabad is bound to become much more expensive.

Technologically sound

The new airports are being constructed with the latest technology and innovation in all aspects beginning with the automatic flight information display, ground handling, check-in, baggage handling, fuel farm and parking. There is also the new concept of having an integrated terminal where both the domestic and international terminals are internally connected and an automatic check-in system that will generate a boarding card automatically.

Also, both the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports will have a biometric access control system at critical areas, like the airport operation control rooms and server rooms. This will improve security by regulating staff access to restricted areas. More importantly, the new Indian airports will operate under an open access fuel farm. Any oil company will be able to supply fuel to airlines, as per agreements. It allows every qualified fuel supplier to use the facility against a fixed fee and allows airlines to avail of the best fuel prices in the market. Anyone who is authorised by the Indian government and has a valid contract with airline companies will be allowed to supply fuel.

Expanding its purview

There is a special emphasis on the north-eastern region of providing up to 600 flights per week within the region by using the appropriate type of aircraft. This means about 50 airstrips and airports, making the required improvements in existing airports/airstrips in a time-bound manner. As the north-eastern region is a little inaccessible by road, the next best option for intra-state connectivity and the region's linkage to the mainland is airports.

The AAI is planning to develop new greenfield airports at Cheithu in Nagaland, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and one at Pakyong near Gangtok in Sikkim, estimated to cost Rs 320 crore.

For the airport at Pakyong in Sikkim, a detailed report has been prepared and forwarded to the Planning Commission and this has been done under the allocation of Rs 100 crore by the 12th Finance Commission. The AAI also has plans to develop two new greenfield airports in Kokrajhar in Assam and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

Work has also begun on a greenfield airport in the industrial belt of Durgapur-Asansol in West Bengal. The developers - Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL) - recently saw coming together of BAPL and Changi Airports International for the project. There are also a number of major industrial conglomerates such as the Reliance Group that have expressed interest in developing private airports for their own use, primarily for logistics operations.

The AAI has already taken initiatives to operationalise the airports at Coch Behar, Pant Nagar, Akola, Gondia, Surat, Pithoragarh, Guachar and Mysore. While there is a raging debate on the pace of upgradation of existing airports, the greenfield projects are under scrutiny too. With the recommendations coming from different industry associations, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) proposed a seven-point strategy for setting up greenfield airports development projects so as to allow growth in all spheres, including cargo. The chamber also said that the exemptions should be ensured on certain things like procurement of environmental and energy conservation devices purchased or contracted by greenfield airport development companies while commissioning such projects and be permitted zero duty. ASSOCHAM also demanded that those who commission such projects should be accorded central sales tax and excise duty exemptions on aviation fuel and other lubes used and supplied in the airport.