Land near airports to be ‘monetised’

New Delhi, October 20

In a bid to monetise 759 acres of land near eight major airports, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to develop them in a way to facilitate private companies to establish warehouses and hotels/restaurants. 

Sources said the money generated would be ploughed back to develop airport infrastructure in unconnected and under-served areas. They added the AAI had identified land parcels of airports for city side development, which include “145 acres near Kolkata airport, 45 acres each near Amritsar airport and Bhubaneswar airport, 35 acres near Jaipur airport, 60 acres near Varanasi airport, 217 acres near Lucknow airport, 80 acres near Raipur airport and 117 acres near Tirpuati airport.

The AAI, which works under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, owns and manages 129 airports across the country, out of which 94 were running in loss in the financial year 2017-18. It is learnt the authority under the AAI Act is in the process of modernising the city side of the airports with an aim to provide land for “planning, development, construction and maintenance of institutions or training centres, workshops, hotels, restaurants and rest-rooms, warehouses and cargo complexes”. — TNS 

Boosting income 

• Land parcels include 45 acres each in Amritsar and Bhubaneswar, 45 acres in Kolkata, 35 acres in Jaipur, 217 acres in Lucknow, 60 acres in Varanasi, 80 acres in Raipur, 117 acres in Tirpuati
• AAI likely to lease out these land parcels to firms for a period of 25-30 years for a fixed annual rental income