With the construction of Changi's proposed airport at Andal near Durgapur currently in full swing to meet the 2012-end deadline, project promoter Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) has initiated talks with major carriers for participation.
“We were always confident about the potentiality of the airport with a huge catchment area in the Durgapur-Asansol-Dhanbad region. The region with many PSUs like Durgapur Steel Plant, Eastern Coalfields Ltd, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and IISCO Steel Plant surely has potential users. We expect several airlines to operate flights from Andal,” BAPL chief executive officer and director Subrata Paul said during a aviation summit at Durgapur organised by developers.
Apart from representatives from airlines like Air India, Jet Airways and Indigo, the event showcasing the facilities at the Andal airport city, was also attended by represtatives from travel agents from Durgapur and adjoining areas, and officials of public sector units such as Durgapur Steel Plant, who will be primary users of the airport.
All the airlines representatives said, they were “impressed by the projected facilities” at the airport. However, airlines will conduct independent surveys before taking a final call on the same.
“Changi's association will surely instill confidence into all the major carriers. But, we will have to look into many operational aspeccts like traffic-potentiality, infrastructure like number of hotel rooms available in case of cancellation of flights etc,” said an official of a private airline.
Operators may seek incentives from the state government in the form of a cut in sales tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF).
“We will definitely look into the operational costs, what the the BAPL or state is offering. In states like Mahrashtra in non- metro airports sales tax on fuel is about four per cent against over 20 cent in case of metro-airports. We will see how the state comes forward here,” another airline official, who attended the summit, said.
When asked about it, Paul said, “We along with the airlines will approach the state government to discuss these issues.”
Earlier last year, BAPL made presentations to the network planning groups of airlines. Then, BAPL also suggested route plans to the airliners, which includes two daily flights to Delhi and one flight to Bombay and Kolkata in a day. It also proposed for three flights in a week to either Chennai or Bangalore depending on passenger traffic, which will be linked with either Guwahati or Bagdogra in Siliguri. Work is on in all aspects of airport like terminal building, runway, ATC building. The 6,500-sqm terminal building will have an annual passenger handling capacity of 1 million.
In the first year, it is expecting a passenger traffic of about 350,000 on the back of a huge catchment area of Durgapur, Asansol, Dhanbad and Kulti. In the first phase of the project BAPL is constructing the airport and initial infrastructure for the proposed township which will involve an investment around Rs 624 crore.
The first phase of the work scheduled to be completed by year-end, includes construction of the airport and initial infrastructure for the proposed township.
After completion of the first phase, BAPL has plans to come out with an airport city which will have an IT park, hospitals and a residential complex. The airport city is expected to see an estimated investment of about Rs 10,000 crore.
