Govt may allow airports on pvt land: Patel

Govt may allow airports on pvt land: Patel
BS Reporter / New Delhi February 6, 2007

To overcome hurdles in land acquisition for airport projects, the government is planning to allow private players to build airports on their own land.

“To increase connectivity, the government will set up merchant greenfield airports, which will be private airports built on privately owned lands, within permissible civil aviation parameters,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.

This, he said, would solve the problem of land acquisition, which was a major hurdle to infrastructure projects in the country.

The Jindal group recently opened its Jindal Vijayanagar airport, that had been operating as a private airstrip since 1997, for commercial operations.

Apart from Air Deccan, which operates daily flights connecting Bangalore and Goa with Vijayanagar, Kingfisher Airlines has shown interest in operating flights connecting Mumbai, Hubli and Vijaynagar.

The civil aviation ministry is also negotiating with state governments to develop some of the 300 airstrips to provide better regional connectivity. The government, which is considering imposing a cess to fund economically unviable airports, is expecting investment of $50-70 billion in the sector in the next ten years.

“Due to the unprecedented growth in the civil aviation sector, we would need secondary airports in non-metro cities for the next 5-10 years. The aviation sector in India has the potential of growing by 25 per cent annually in the next ten years. In 2006 alone, the growth was 50 per cent. This has created the need for urgent and immediate growth in infrastructure,” Patel said. He added that public-private-partnerships can help build infrastructure in shortest possible time.

The government is also considering regulatory control over the civil aviation sector. The Bill for setting up an airport economic regulatory authority would be introduced in Parliament in the Budget session, he said. The authority is expected to be in place by the end of the year.

Patel said a proposal to hike foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in helicopter and sea-plane operations, charters, air-cargo and non-scheduled air operations and in maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities has been moved for Cabinet’s consideration.

Illegal connections pose hurdle

Illegal connections pose hurdle
M L Kapur - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
5 Feb, 2007 2336hrs IST

HUBLI: Nearly 1,000 illegal water connections in Hubli and Dharwad have become the main stumbling block in the timely commissioning of the 24x7 drinking water supply demonstration project in selected eight wards of the twin cities.

The World Bank-aided project was to have been completed by September last year. The deadline was extended till December following opposition to the project from a section of the target population in Dharwad. Many of them had illegal connections.

The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) is implementing the Rs 237-crore project in select wards of Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Gulbarga. It has now been rescheduled for commissioning by March-end this year.

Even as some 60-odd houses in Shakti Nagar and Madhura Park areas of Hubli are getting round-the-clock water supply up to the second floor for over a week now on an experimental basis, the illegal connections issue continues to dog the project the project officials.

KUIDFC chairman A K Agarwal reviewed the progress of the project on Monday. Dharwad regional deputy project director I M Prabhakar said those illegally tapping water from the main pipes in Hubli and Dharwad had been asked to regularise their water connections.

Project officials made it clear that only those having authorised Water Board connections would be offered the facility of 24x7 drinking water supply. According to a rough estimate, about 60% of connections in Pendar Oni and Kolikeri areas of Dharwad are illegal. A French multinational, CGE, has been awarded the contract to execute and operate the project for two years, and also design billing software, before handing it over to the respective local civic bodies, even though KUIDFC is the nodal agency for its implementation.

At the peak of opposition to the project in Dharwad on grounds that water charges would be hiked steeply,HDMC commissioner P Manivannan had given the residents the option to either retain the Water Board connection or go in for 24x7 supply. He had also promised to provide public taps in the demonstration wards.

However, project officials said that water supplied through the public taps will also be billed. "The only difference will be that that if HDMC installs public taps, it will pay the bill. The money will just move from one head of account to the other as revenue under the project ultimately goes to the civic body."

Meanwhile, the Dharwadbased Rural and Urban Development Association, the NGO whose functioning had come under severe criticism for its failure to create public awareness about the project, has been asked to motivate people to apply for connections under the 24x7 project.