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Airports Authority of India (AAI) is looking to raise Rs 15 billion as term loan to fund capital expenditure in the next fiscal, wherein work is to commence on new terminal buildings at various aerodromes.
The state-owned airports operator, which has a healthy balance sheet, is going in for borrowings for the first time.
For 2018-19, the capital expenditure is projected to be around Rs 41 billion, compared to Rs 25 billion for the current financial year ending on March 31.
The domestic aviation market is growing at high double digits and to meet the rising demand, infrastructure capacity needs to be ramped up.
AAI -- which operates more than 120 airports in different parts of the country -- is scouting for rupee term loans to the tune of Rs 15 billion, according to a recent public notice.
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"Since we have a healthy balance sheet, we are confident of raising funds at more competitive rates," AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra told PTI.
Going forward, he said, most of the projects would be implemented on "60:40 ratio", which means that 60 per cent would be the debt component and the rest would be equity.
"This would allow us to take up more projects, especially at a time when lot more spending is required for the aviation infrastructure," he said.
For the next three years, AAI plans to make capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 150 to 170 billion, he added.
According to Mohapatra, in the next financial year, AAI would be starting work for new terminal buildings worth around Rs 150 billion.
Mega projects of new terminal buildings are to start at Guwahati, Leh, Patna, Trichy, Vijayawada, Jabalpur, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Pune, Lucknow, Mangalore, Dehradun and Jaipur.
In 2016-17, AAI reported 23 per cent jump in net profit to record Rs 31.15 billion.
