“...The modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airport is being delayed due to constant objections being raised by the Planning Commission about the scale and size of these airports we planned to construct.”

That was Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in his letter to Montek Singh Ahluwalia soon after the Planning Commission deputy chairman hauled up the Delhi airport developer over what he called the slow pace of work.

Given that 2010 is the deadline for the first phase of modernisation for both Kolkata and Chennai airports, Patel has a reason to raise the red flag. While work at the Kolkata airport is delayed for six months, at Chennai, the delay is four months and counting. This despite the fact that both projects were cleared last year by the Committee on Infrastructure (CoI) headed by the Prime Minister.

The “constant objections,” Patel mentioned refer to the protracted debate over planning “big” (the Ministry’s proposal) and planning small (the Planning Commission’s idea.)

Patel says the Ministry wants to build world-class airports in both cities and that such projects should be decided keeping in mind needs for the next 10-20 years. “We should not repeat mistakes of the past of planning small,” he told The Indian Express. Like the one made in the construction of the current New Delhi international airport, “a plan then approved by the Planning Commission and the Ministry.”

As envisaged by the Ministry, work should have started on the upgradation of Kolkata airport in January this year but the Planning Commission’s charges of “overbuilding” is what is keeping the project from taking off.

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