| With the international greenfield airport project already on the anvil, the government's strategy in this regard has been on making Hyderabad as a hub of aviation activities and increase connectivity to tier 2 cities to enable expansion of IT and industrial operations. |
| NP Ramakrishna Reddy, additional secretary to government (ports), Transport Roads and Buildings department, in an interview to Business Standard, explains the government's plans and its proactive role in the development of the state's aviation sector, apart from throwing light on the ongoing activities. |
| What are the state government's plans for the state aviation sector? |
| In all, we have five operational and 14 non-operational airports in the state. With the aviation sector getting increased focus, the state government has decided to operationalise all the non-operational airports in the state under the public-private partnership or BOT basis. |
| The Union government had suggested that the state consider the taking over of Rajahmundry, Kadapa, Warangal and Donakonda airports to operate and maintain these facilities. |
| The state government has appointed L&T Ramboll as consultant for the preparation of an integrated development plan for small airports in the state. We already have received the final feasibility report submitted by them. Concrete plans in this regard will be announced soon. |
| What is the status of the airports that are already in operation? |
| Out of the five operational airports, the upgradation and development of Begumpet (Hyderabad), Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada facilities are already underway. |
| In a latest development, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has decided to set up a modern 'Steel and Glass' terminal building at the Vizag airport and it will be completed simultaneously along with other facilities by December 2005. |
| The construction of the terminal was not envisaged in the original plan. Almost 60 per cent of the development and upgradation works of Vizag airport have already been completed. The Rs 190-crore development package includes a 10,000 feet new runway, three aero bridges, ILS (instrument landing system) and night landing facilities. |
| The state government has provided 242 acres of land for the airport expansion plans in addition to a cost contribution of Rs 25 crore to the project. |
| AAI is also contributing Rs 25 crore. The Ministry of Defence has provided Rs 140 crore for the development of the facility, which will be controlled by them. The new facility will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2006. This is an initial step in the direction of having an international airport on the east coast in the future. |
| Why should the government invest in the Begumpet airport when it is destined to be closed once the new airport at Shamshabad comes into operation? |
| It is a fact that Begumpet airport will be closed when the international airport commences operations in 2008. But AAI is spending over Rs 60 crore for expansion of runway and other facilities with an intelligent strategy. |
| Begumpet airport handled 2.2 million passengers during 2003-04. With this investment of Rs 60 crore, the traffic is expected to grow to about four million passengers by 2008. The increased traffic will be finally shifted to Shamshabad airport in 2008. |
| Meanwhile, the Begumpet airport will get its investment back due to the increased revenues on account of the expected growth in traffic, which also makes the new airport more viable. The ongoing work on the expansion of the runway and other facilities will be completed by June this year. |
| After the completion of works, the runway length will be 10,600 feet, which will be able to accommodate even a Boeing 747. This will facilitate international flights to land in Hyderabad directly. |
| When will the execution of Shamshabad international airport project commence and what is its current status? |
| The promoters led by GMR Infrastructure Limited, which owns 63 per cent equity in the project, are at a very advanced stage of achieving financial closure for the project. The government has already handed over 5,000 acres of land to the promoters. |
| All the agreements including state support agreement, land lease agreement, shareholders agreement and concession agreement have been signed. |
| The joint venture company has begun constructing compound wall on the land, of which 70 per cent of the work has been completed. The first phase of the project, which costs around Rs 1,400 crore, will be completed in 33 months from the date of achieving financial closure. |
| The airport will have the longest runway among all the Indian airports with 4,260 metres length. This will be able to receive the longest and biggest aircraft A-380 that will carry 800 passengers. |
| Has the government formulated any particular strategy for having a competitive edge over the other states? |
| The government is following a three-pronged strategy for the development of the state aviation sector to keep Andhra Pradesh a step ahead of other competing states to speed up the industrialisation process across the length and breadth of the state. |
| The strategy includes development of airports, increase in flights connectivity to and from various airports in the state and encourage low cost airlines. |
| The efforts are already underway to make Hyderabad a hub of aviation activities, to build sufficient airport capacity services at reasonable rate and to attract various national and international airlines to enhance their service network within the state. Towards this end, the government has already issued orders announcing concession on sales tax on ATF. |
| To encourage airlines in the state, the government also decided to provide land required by them on nominal lease including exemption on stamp duty and registration charges on case-to-case basis. |
| The government will come forward with providing infrastructure support like road connectivity, power and water supply to airports, best effort support in obtaining government of India clearances and exemption of sales tax among others. |
| As you are aware, Air Sahara is making Hyderabad its hub. It is going to increase its flight frequency to 126 a week from February 2005. The state government has announced tax concession on air turbine fuel (ATF) in October 2004 specifically to encourage airline companies to increase flight operations from Hyderabad. |
| Other airlines such as Jet Airways, Air Deccan are also on the move to increase the flights for taking advantage of sales tax concession on ATF. |
| With the introduction of low-cost airlines, the tough competition between the airlines has given the advantage of air travel to a common man for a mere Rs 1,000 from Hyderabad to Delhi. |
| The open sky policy and the recent accord executed between India and United states conferring overseas flying rights to private carriers will definitely help increase the traffic at Hyderabad. |
| Taking off |
| AAI owned: Warangal, Rajahmundry, Donakonda and Kadapa State governmentowned: Nagarjunasagar, Nalgonda, Eluru, Alair Civil Enclave: Bobbili, Adilabad, Tadepalligudem Privately owned: Peddapally, Hindupur and Sirpur Kagaznagar |
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