Behind delay in Kolkata, Chennai airport revamp: Ministry planned big, Montek & Co want smaller

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.)

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.

The Ministry wants to create a massive integrated terminal at Kolkata spread out across 2.5 km. It also plans to vacate and close down the existing international terminal in the second phase of modernisation. The domestic terminal will continue to be used and its front elevation, sources said, will be re-developed. In Phase III, the domestic terminal will also be replaced with a brand new structure.

“While we have all environmental clearances and so on for the project and have already started the tendering process, we are unable to award them and start work on the airport’s upgradation because we still do not have the government’s go-ahead. That is largely because the Plan Panel is convinced that we will end up overbuilding. We, however, feel that as per our traffic projections, we will require a bigger terminal area,” said a...