Parliamentary committee recommends UDF witdrawal, reopening HAL
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Written By Devesh - 24 October, 2008
BIAL
Bangalore
HAL Airport
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In what is sure to be a shock, to both the BIAL and HIAL consortia, the Deccan Chronicle reports, the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, on Thursday October 23, recommended immediate withdrawal of user development fees (UDF) being charged by Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports.
It said the private operators had invested only Rs 330 crore and Rs 240 crore at Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively to develop the airports. The rest of the amount came from the AAI, state governments and through debt from financial institutions.
Observing that the government’s policy was to make air travel more affordable, the committee said the UDF imposed on passengers “may be withdrawn immediately and no more UDF may be imposed on passengers in any of the airports.”
The committee has also recommended that the HAL airport in Bangalore, and the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad be used for short-haul domestic flights.
The committee, headed by the CPI(M) leader, Mr Sitaram Yechury, said any future greenfield or brownfield airports should be developed with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) having a majority stake in a joint venture.
What impact this recommendation will have on the pending UDF requests of the consortia at Delhi and Mumbai is also to be considered.
[PS: cross posted from My Aviation Blog]
The heading of this article posted by Devesh at Praja is misleading which makes one believe that HAL will be reopened, but according to Deccan Hearld, the title of the original article is highlighted in bold as "No plan to reopen HAL airport". I guess this was another propaganda stunt from Mr.Devesh to mislead public
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Oct252008/national2008102597146.asp
mcad, you said:
"it will make the management of BIAL esp Brunner and Co pay for their actions. They consider Bangaloreans cheapskates and fools by claiming to have invested in "Rs. 2500 Crores" in a world class airport!"
Well, in what seems like an auditing fraud which could have anyone from MoCA, AAI mid ranks, GoK, BIAL, to who knows even the judges involved, everyone besides BIAL gets away rather easily now. And if I can predict this right, BIAL may get 'rewarded' by getting share of revenues from HAL airport as well.
Its also interesting to see arguments in favor of competition for a sector which can create customers base only by running huge operating losses. All this while the basic stuff, for which we have million of customers willing to pay - urban transportation, power, water - those are not up for competition.
This has been one stinking project - a perfect example and case study on how large PPP projects are setup for failure simply because they are convenient ways of bypassing government's regular tendering and contracting process.
Hope RTI norms get extended to PPPs.
Hope that PPPs and businesses learn better ways to deal with the dirt that dealing with government entails.
And for us, the public, lets be happy reading what we will be told via our morning newspapers. Happy court battles everyone. And let us predict a CBI inquiry as well, sooner or later.
This is only a recommendation not a foregone conclusion. It is recommendation from a panel headed by CPI(M) what did we expect from it?
We will realize the impact of scuttling BIA 5-10 years down the line. If HAL is opened to pander to the greed of business houses wanting to save 625(UDF) per person; Bangalore will be the ultimate loser.
The comittee wants AAI to take over BIA then be prepared for the same quality of service and unaccountability that existed in HAL. Now you can hold BIAL accountable for QoS after AAI you cant even do that.
Oil is down to $61 per barrel down 100% since its highs. Has the fuel surcharge on your ticket come down even by 25%?
This reccomendation will go a long way in ensuring that there is competition in infrastructure. More importantly, it will make the management of BIAL esp Brunner and Co pay for their actions. They consider Bangaloreans cheapskates and fools by claiming to have invested in "Rs. 2500 Crores" in a world class airport!
I look forward to HAL resuming flights soon. This time, it will compete head on with BIA instead.
I reccomend GoK come up with a better vision ahead for HAL by completely overhauling HAL and more importantly, the access roads to HAL.
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