"We are facing a funding gap of Rs 2,000 crore of the total Rs 9,800 crore (Rs 98 billion) airport development project. We have made a request to the government to allow us to levy an airport development fee to bridge this gap," Mumbai International Airport Limited's (MIAL) managing director, G V Sanjay Reddy, said.

MIAL has asked approval to levy Rs 350 airport development fee from domestic passengers and Rs 1,300 from the international passengers, Reddy said.

"We are hopeful that the Government will approve it. There are several mechanisms for filling the gap such as hiking aeronautical revenue, charging user-development fee and airport development fee," he said, adding that "airport development fee is one of the options."

Reddy, however, said that "we are not looking at filling the gap with equity."

MIAL, which has currently engaged global auditing firm PwC to audit its accounts will go in for new auditors in the next fiscal, Reddy said.

"A decision in this regard will be taken by our Board," he said. MIAL has also decided to have joint auditors, he said.

Earlier, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, kick-started the development work of Terminal 2 A at the international airport in Mumbai, on Friday.

The new integrated passegner terminal at Sahar is expected to be completed in three phases by 2012. The first phase is expected to completed by 2010 and the second by 2011.

The terminal building will have a total floor area of around 4.3 million sq. metres across four levels. The highly-flexible gating plant and terminal arrangement will ultimately accommodate 40 million passengers--both domestic and international, per year.

It would also offer 184 check-in counters, 14 baggage claim belts and 52 contact positions with passenger boarding bridges.

About 700,000 lakh sq ft will be reserved for retail shops, food and beverages outlets, lounges and other travel services.