Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of theongoing 'Wings India 2020,' an aviation-related event beingheld here, AAI chairman Arvind Singh said the airportsoperator would be spending Rs 5000 crore on capex for the nextfive years beginning this year.
"We are thinking of going for external commercialborrowings (ECB) at lower rates to fund our plans. Plus we getfunds from the government of India under Udan scheme. They(Centre) have allotted Rs 4,500 crore to build airports underthe Udan scheme. We will be going for the ECBs next financialyear," Singh said.
The first tranche would be USD 300 million. The boardhas approved (the ECB proposal) a month ago, he said.
According to him, of the present 110 airports in thecountry, the AAI operates over 90.
The PSU is in the process of upgrading some of theairports which are building some greenfield aerodromes.
It is also in the process of converting underservedand unserved airports under the Udan scheme for which theCentre is extending financial assistance to make themoperational.
"We have made 48 of such airports operational in thelast three years. So to meet all these requirements we have avery huge capex plan. On an average, we are spending Rs 3,000crore to Rs 4,000 crore a year. From this year, we arestepping up it to Rs 5,000 crore per annum. Right now, we arecatering to 345 million passengers per annum," he said.
"We should be able to reach upto 700 or 750 millionpassengers by 2030," he said.
Right now, there are 21 approved greenfield airportprojects in the country and five of them have been completed,he said.
On the proposed water aerodromes, he said in the nextfinancial year the non-scheduled operations would be startingfrom some water aerodromes. GDKNVG NVG