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Plan drawn out to upgrade airports

BS Corporate Bureau

As part of a revamp of the airports in the country, the civil aviation ministry is preparing a master-plan to develop and modernise airports in the country.

"This can be done without funding from the government," civil aviation secretary K Roy Paul said at a seminar organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) on Saturday.

He also said the skills of the Airports Authority of India would have to be upgraded in order to equip it for overall management of world class airports.

The secretary further said he was hopeful that the government would provide funds for the proposed fleet expansion of the two state-owned airlines _ Air-India and Indian Airlines.

"I am confident that the govt and our finance ministry will come to the help of the aviation industry so that we would be able to acquire more aircraft so that we can have more frequency of flights," Roy Paul said.

The board of Indian Airlines has already cleared a proposal to purchase 42 Airbus aircraft at an estimated cost of over Rs 100 billion over the next five years, Air-India is also evaluating acquisition of 45 aircraft at about the same cost to add some destinations for which the bilaterals are unutilised.

The government is expected to chip in with a part of the contribution while the remaining amount is expected come through borrowings.

With divestment of the two PSUs on the backburner, the emphasis now would be to strengthen them, acquire new aircraft and upgrade airport infrastructure he added.

While Roy Paul said the aviation ministry was trying to make air travel cheaper, he partly blamed high taxation levels for the cost. For example he said the price of aviation turbine fuel in India was "30-35 per cent more than that in Dubai".

The sales tax on ATF, he said, was as high as 40 per cent in many states He lauded Andhra Pradesh for reducing sales tax on ATF from 30 to 35 to four per cent and hoped that the other progressive states would follow suit.

He said the civil aviation ministry had been suggesting measures to simplify some immigration procedures. He sought the co-operation of the customs and immigration authorities on that ground.

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