Maytas eyes small airports

Hyderabad-based Maytas Infra will be bidding for the development of airports in tier II and tier III cities.

"We are evaluating bidding prospects for development of airports, and would like to enter the field as and when the opportunity comes. It is one of our focus areas," said P Chakrapani, senior vice-president for business development of Maytas Infra, at a press conference in Kolkata on Monday.

Chakrapani added that development of very small airports might not be economically viable for the company, and government support was needed for their development.

"It the airport is too small, it is not viable to develop it. However, it can be made viable with government support," Chakrapani said.

He said projects like plans to develop 35 airports in the tier-II and tier-III cities, a cargo hub in Nagpur, apart from bigger airport development plans in Kolkata and Chennai provided "excellent opportunities" in the field.

Maytas Infra recently entered the port development business by wining a bid to have 25.5 per cent stake a Rs 1,200 crore port project in Machilipatnam in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

The Gautami and KVK Nilachal power projects are some of the other big projects bagged by the company.

The Gautami power plant commenced operations in 2006 but later ran into trouble because of unavailability of fuel, resulting in cost escalation of about Rs 250 crore.

Fuel supply is likely to resume by next year, according to Chakrapani.

Maytas Infra, which recently entered the capital market through IPO, has its portfolio diversified into construction and infrastructure development businesses. The construction business has four segments under it, namely, irrigation, roads and bridges, buildings and structure, power, oil and gas and railways. The infrastructure arm has ports, roads and power verticals under it.