NEW DELHI, November 7: The Cabinet on Friday approved the airport infrastructure policy providing for airports owned and managed by central and state governments, public undertakings, urban local bodies, private companies, joint ventures and individuals.

The policy envisages foreign equity participation up to 74 per cent with automatic approval and 100 per cent on a case by case basis.To attract the inflow of funds, both domestic and foreign, the policy provides for build, operate and transfer (BOT); build, operate, lease and transfer (BOLT); lease, develop and transfer (LDO) and management contract options.

The exact pattern is to be negotiated in each individual case depending on circumstances, an official spokesperson said.

The policy also provides for reclassification of airports. While airports at Delhi and Mumbai will be developed as sub-continental hubs with world class facilities, the other existing international airports will be classified as international hubs.

The third category of airports will be regional hubs and serve as operational basis for regional airlines. Airports at state capitals and other places will constitute the fourth category. The classification will be revised every five years.

The spokesperson said special attention would be paid to speedy handling of cargo and reducing its dwell time.

The present level of four days of dwell time for exports is to be reduced to 12 hours. In case of imports, it is aimed that it be reduced to 24 hours from the present four weeks. Cargo clearances would be on a 24-hour basis.

The spokesperson said infrastructure for cargo handling, such as satellite freight cities and other facilities, would be set up along with electronic data interchange (EDI) system.

There are presently 120 airports and civil enclaves which handled 3.96 lakh aircraft movements involving 243 lakh domestic and 120 lakh international passengers in 1996-97. They also handled two lakh tonnes of domestic and 4.8 lakh tonnes of international cargo.

Nearly 52 per cent of traffic was handled by the international airports at Mumbai and Delhi.

The spokesperson said by 2017, the domestic passenger traffic is estimated at 523 lakhs and international passenger traffic at 324 lakhs. The quantum jump is about four times in passenger traffic while in cargo traffic, it is estimated to be six times necessitating the policy for strengthening the airport infrastructure.

The modernisation and upgradation of the Mubai, Delhi and Bangalore airports alone is, according to estimates, likely to cost Rs 10000 crores, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.