Fresh cabinet note submitted on Tata-Raytheon plan
Aparna Kalra
New Delhi, Jan 20: The civil aviation ministry has submitted a fresh cabinet note on the Tata-Raytheon airport project. Ministry sources said that the note was cleared by union civil aviation minister CM Ibrahim and minister of state Jayanthi Natarajan on Tuesday.This is the second note on the airport project. The first cabinet note was withdrawn from the cabinet secretariat by Ibrahim just over a week ago.Ibrahim had alleged that civil aviation secretary MK Kaw had failed to include the major changes in the first note. The two ministers had jointly made these changes as they felt that the original note, prepared by Kaw, was unclear and did not give the full facts to the cabinet. This time round, however, Kaw has amended the cabinet note, incorporating changes made by the two ministers, sources added. The note specifies that the proposed airport will be a joint venture in perpetuity between the Tatas and the centre. The note suggests that the cabinet should make the decision of the distribution of
traffic between the HAL airport and the new airport, keeping in mind the views of the ministry of defence which runs the HAL airport. Further, it recommends that the Karnataka government should give the 3,500 acres of land to the Tata-led consortium on lease. However, the final decision on this is left to the Karnataka government. On the issue of 10 per cent equity to be picked up by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the note states that the issue of whether the equity can be picked up in cash should be decided by the parties at the time of signing the MoU. The note recommends that the AAI stake can be paid for in terms of manpower or technical assistance. It is expected that the note will be put up for cabinet clearance this week. The Tatas may not get a green signal from the cabinet as the UF government is a care taker. It is not clear whether the government has the legal right to clear major projects. The airport envisages an investment of Rs 3,900 crore. The ministry has already sought the
Election Commission's comments on whether it can give the go-ahead to another major Tata project-the Tata Airline.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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