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Journalism of Courage
Decks have been cleared for the second greenfield airport of the country near Hyderabad with the concession agreement finalised and ready for Cabinet approval.
Sources said the note is likely to be placed before the Cabinet on Wednesday, so that the agreement can be signed next Monday.
The plan is to have the agreement signed in the presence of PM Manmohan Singh and his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmed Badawi, who is slated to be in India on Monday. Malaysian Airports Holding Berhard, along with the GMR group are the major stakeholders in the private consortium.
With the Banagalore Airport back on track, the government is now focussing on getting the proposed Hyderabad International Airport off the ground. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel personally followed up the clearance of concession agreement with FM P. Chidambaram in an effort to remove bottlenecks.
The Rs 1,300-crore airport will be constructed at Shamsabad near Hyderabad. The state support and land lease agreements have already been signed by the Andhra Pradesh government. AP is providing an interest free loan of over Rs 400 crore as state support apart from 5,000 acres land for the airport.
The concession agreement is along the lines of the Bangalore International Airport Ltd signed in July. The minimum standard of performance has been kept at 3.6, the average score of Asian Airports in an IATA survey conducted three years ago.
Once this agreement is signed, the Hyderabad International Airport Ltd will have to identify its engineering and procurement contractor before proceeding for financial closure. With the construction of the airport at Shamsabad, the existing Hyderabad airport will be shut down. The new airport is supposed to come up within 36 months of the financial closure.
