Centre may ease norms on monetisation of land

Hyderabad: In a bid a to sustain the growth in the aviation industry, civil aviation secretary R.N. Choubey on Thursday said that the ministry is looking at easing its land policies to boost private participation in the development of airports.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Wings India exhibition here, Mr Choubey said, “There is a need to develop or expand airports to fight the congestion at the top cities. Land is difficult to come by and the government is looking at various models to develop airports.”

Mr Choubey added that there is a need to relax the laws so that the private developers are allowed to monetise land for non-passenger purposes.

“There is a limit to the number of hotels one can build for passengers near an airport. Other options should also be looked at,” he said.

Explaining the models, the secretary said that the government was working on a new concession model agreement defining the incentives and freedom that a private developer would be allowed in running the airport. “If everything goes through smoothly, then the changes can be ratified in six months,” he explained.

He said other models includes land pooling or shifting the airport to the outskirts of the city with the land of the current airport being monetised to develop the new airport.