NEW DELHI, MAY 15: “...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.
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 senior Ministry official.
The ministry hopes that it will be able to start work on the Rs 2,000-crore Phase I of the Kolkata airport modernisation project by July this year.
At the Chennai airport, while the Rs 1800-crore first-phase modernisation has been delayed by over four months now largely due to major land acquisition issues, the Planning Commission has the same set of reservations.
“We have been trying to expedite the Chennai airport case but acquisition of some 136 acres in the area is still a problem. While the state has invoked an emergency clause for land acquisition, it’s also tangled in courts. However, we have been assured that by August or September we should be able to start work there. Still, the Plan Panel has sizing issues, they feel we are planning too big an airport.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Ahluwalia said: “I have been very concerned about the need to cut delays in projects. (In fact) we have speeded up processes very considerably”. He said that it’s the Public Investment Board that clears projects with the Planning Commission’s observations. These can be overruled by the PIB when it clears the project. Finally, PIB’s decision, along with the Commission’s views, is taken to the CCEA for final approval, he said.
Senior officials from the Planning Commission claim that they have just received Chennai’s modernisation proposal and the problem is that contiguous land is not available. On Kolkata, these officials claim, the Plan panel feels it should be modernized on a “modular basis” instead of creating a large airport. And that if this is done on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, money saved could be invested in upgrading airports in the North-East.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/310379.html
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