Hyderabad takes off ahead of Bangalore

Hyderabad takes off ahead of Bangalore
The Indian Express/New Indian Express

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20: While the Bangalore airport project awaits key clearances, the second ‘greenfield’ airport of the country at Hyderabad has almost caught up with the signing of the all-important concession agreement today between the Centre and a private consortium today.

The Andhra Pradesh government has already signed the state support and land lease agreements with the consortium over a year ago. The state has already provided an encumbrance-free site of 5000 acres — a boundary wall around the site is almost ready — as well as


Rs 422 crores as state support, of which Rs 315 crores is an interest-free loan.

The only roadblock was the concession agreement, which was signed today in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his visiting Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Malyasian Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) is the global partner holding a 11 per cent stake in a joint venture where the principal stakeholder is Hyderabad-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd. with 63 per cent.

According to the agreement, the Hyderbad International Airport Ltd. —— the joint venture comprising GMR, MAHB, AP Government and Airports Authority of India —— will have to complete financial closure for the project within a year from now. HIAL will get 36 months from the date of the financial closure to have the new airport ready. So, latest by end-2008, Hyderbad’s new airport at Shamsabad should be functional.

Unlike Bangalore, where those constructing the airport are part of the private consortium, the main construction of the terminal building and runway will be sub-contracted for Hyderabad.


AIRPORT SCHEDULE


• Feb 2000: Bids invited for the project
• July 2003: GMR and MAHB consortium selected
• Sept 2003: AP Government signs state support and land lease agreements
• June 2004: Encumbrance-free land handed over, consortium start boundary wall construction
• Dec 2004: Concession Agreement signed between Centre and HIAL

‘‘We have already floated global tenders for this. The terminal building, the construction of runway along with access roads plus taxi-ways and site preparation will be separate contracts. The response has been good and we hope to complete the process within the next two or three months. We hope to start construction by May,’’ said HIAL Managing Director Kiran Kumar Grandhi.

While the plan is to spend over Rs 4,000 crores for a world class airport that can handle 20 million passengers annually within the next 25 years, the current project cost is a little over Rs. 1,400 crores. The project will be implemented in three phases and by 2008, Hyderabad will have an airport that can handle about 5 million passengers in a year.

According to Grandhi, the airport will not have a second runway but a provision has been in made for this in the blueprint. Similarly, taking note of the growing number of low-cost carriers, there is also provision for a special low-cost terminal in the long run.

The concession agreement was signed today by Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad on behalf of the government while GMR Chairman GM Rao and MAHB Chairman Aris Othman were the other signatories.