Having faced rough weather over the concession agreements regarding the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports, the Centre will release in two weeks a “model concession agreement” to make future accords less controversial.

Civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla told Deccan Herald here on Wednesday that the model pact would be based on the “lessons learnt” from the two greenfield airports as well as those of Delhi and Mumbai.

“We have also taken into account international practices”, he added. “The whole process is evolutionary.
After going through the experience, the government is now formulating the idealistic Concession Agreement which should be out in two weeks”.

It is also learnt that the model accord would not contain the two most controversial clauses which threatened to disrupt the opening of the new airports: user development fee and closure of the existing airports.

The model pact will also not have the clause relating to Central equity in the projects as the latest FDI policy in aviation allows investments up to 100 per cent under automatic route.

With no Central funding, this will also ensure that the approval of the Centre for greenfield airports will be faster.
Useful

The proposed model pact will be useful while completing the process for the selection of the developers of the new greenfield airports in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states which are keen on construction of new, smaller airports in the districts.

Among the important new airports which may come up in the next few years will be second airport in Mumbai (Navi Mumbai), an airport at Greater Noida (near Delhi), second airport in Goa etc.
New airports

In Karnataka, while work on Hassan airport has already started, new airports will also come up at Shimoga, Gulbarga and Bijapur.

Experts welcomed the Centre’s announcement about the new model code.

 “This is in line with the needs of the industry, especially overseas investors who were  expecting this from the government,”  Kapil Kaul of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said.

“It brings transparency which will allow stake holders to be aware of the issues before deciding about their involvement in a certain project,” he said adding, “The government has taken inputs from experiences drawn from the greenfield airports in the South and the Delhi and Mumbai airports so that they can tighten the model code.”