Govt looking at PPP for Chennai,Kolkata airports

The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) is developing airports at Chennai and Kolkata at costs of Rs 2,100 crore and Rs 2,350 crore respectively.

After privatisation of four major airports of the country,the government is now set to explore the possibility of development,operation and maintenance of state-owned Kolkata and Chennai airports through a public private partnership (PPP) model.

The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) is developing airports at Chennai and Kolkata at costs of Rs 2,100 crore and Rs 2,350 crore respectively. The modernisation of these two airports has fallen behind schedule,with Chennai airport likely to be operational by June and Kolkata by October.

In a meeting with the Montek Singh Ahluwalia,deputy chairman,Planning Commission and Gajendra Haldea,Advisor in the Planning Commission,civil aviation minister Ajit Singh discussed the modalities for putting these two airports on a PPP mode.

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It was decided to consider the development of new airports,city side development,and maintenance of Chennai and Kolkata airports,work out various modalities and seek approval by the Cabinet Committee of Infrastructure, said a ministry spokesperson.

Both the airports have been the most profitable and top revenue earners for the state-owned airport operator Chennai earned Rs 779 crore in 2010-11 and Kolkatas revenue stood at Rs 419 crore during the same period.

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In defence of the high base price recommended for auctioning 2G spectrum,the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) maintained on Tuesday that consumers would have to shell out a maximum of only five paise extra a minute on a call as a result.

Trai chairman Rahul Khullar and his predecessor J S Sarma told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the telecom scam,that technology had gone through a sea change since 2008 and the price revision was necessary.

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Trai said it worked out the prices factoring in inflation and would provide details of its calculations.

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