Delhi airport plans to invest around ₹9,000 crore to boost its capacity, Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu, said on Tuesday.
The Vice President was speaking at a function where he released two books—The Economic Impact Report of Delhi airport and a Coffee Table book on Delhi airport.
The Delhi airport is operated by Delhi International Airport Limited, a joint venture between GMR Group, Fraport and Airports Authority of India. It is the busiest airport in the country handling close to 70 million passengers annually. The proposed upgrade will see the passenger handling capacity increase to over 90 million.
Fund utilisation
I.P. Prabhakara Rao, Executive Director, GMR Airports, told newspersons that the funds will be utilised over three years and will see the construction of a fourth runway which will have a length of 4 km. . The funds will also be used for doing work on the air and terminal side.
Officials declined to get into specifics of how the group planned to raise ₹9,000 crore but indicated that a large portion will be raised from outside. In the past, the airport recovered part of the funds that it had invested by imposing an arrival and depature tax. GMR officials declined to say whether the option of imposing an arrival and depature tax on passengers was being considered.
With this investment, the capex of Delhi airport will stand at around ₹22,000 crore, officials said.
“The biggest challenge will be to do upgrade work even as the airport operations continue at the airport,” Prabhakara Rao said.
Air service bilaterals
Earlier speaking at the launch function, G.M. Rao, Chairman, GMR Group, thanked the Government for not exchanging any air services bilaterals with countries in the Gulf region as the move had helped Delhi airport become a hub airport. Rao said that Delhi airport was on track to replace London Heathrow and also Dubai as the busiest airport in the world.