NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The Rs 3,900-crore Tata-Raytheon airport proposal will be placed before the union cabinet for its approval within a month. Confirming the move Tata Industries director S Gupta said, "All outstanding issues pertaining to the airport have been resolved between the Tata-led consortium, the Karnataka government and the central government." The cabinet's clearence has been made mandatory by the government for setting up of new airports. The clearance is likely to come without fresh hurdles for the airport project.

Prime minister IK Gujaral is in favour of the project, especially in the wake of the Tata-SIA airline fiasco.

In fact, it was pressure from the prime minister's office (PMO) which brought the civil avaition ministry to the negotiation table again and broke a four-month stand-off between the ministry and the Karnataka government.The Tatas have already conceded an equity stake to the centre via the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The government, meanwhile, has given them permission to build the Bangalore airport on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis.Gupta said that a working group set up to decide the fate of the HAL airport had resolved this issue also. The HAL aiport will continue to function for charter flights for a few years.

Once the cabinet clears the Tata-Raytheon-Singapore consortium airport, it is expected that the Karnataka government will move ahead with the purchase of the site identified for the airport at Devanahalli in Bangalore.

The Tata group holds 26 per cent stake in the airport project. Its foreign partners, the US-based Raytheon group and the Singapore consortium hold 24.5 per cent each. The remaining 25 per cent stake is held by the Karnataka government and AAI.

The proposal conforms to the new airports policy which permits automatic approval for airports with up to 76 per cent foreign equity. The policy was cleared recently by union civil avaition minister CM Ibrahim.

The Tatas' proposal for a passenger airline with Singapore Airlines (SIA) has already been shot down by the government.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.