A separate company, Maharashtra Airport Development Company, would be constituted to implement the project. MADC would have equity participation from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, City & Industrial Development Corporation and other financial institutions. MSRDC would be the nodal agency for the project, which would be implemented on BOT basis.
The project, estimated to cost Rs 5,000 crore, would be taken up in phases. Of the total project cost, around Rs 2,500 crore would be raised through private participation, while Rs 200 crore would be brought in by the state government for acquiring 2,556 hectares of land. An investment of Rs 1,125 crore is envisaged by 2006 in the first phase of the project.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Nagpur cargo hub project cleared
Deccan Cargo to set up hub at Nagpur
Nagpur, July 10 (IANS) In a major step towards operationalisation of the multi-modal international hub airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), the Maharashtra Airport Development Co (MADC) Thursday signed a pact with Deccan Cargo for running a cargo hub here.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is the ex-officio chairman of MADC, signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Captain Gopinath of Deccan Cargo in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar among other dignitaries.
Reiterating that Nagpur was his dream city and MIHAN his dream project, Deshmukh said it was the happiest day for him as chairman of the project.
Describing the signing of MoU as creation of runway for the take off of MIHAN, better known as Cargo Hub Project, Patel hoped it would develop into one of the finest facilities of the kind in the world.
'Nagpur is decidedly the natural corridor for freight logistics in India and a highly favourable nodal point on the world cargo movement map,' he said, adding that time will vindicate the choice of the city for the project in preference to Hyderabad.
The civil aviation minister also disclosed that Indian Airlines too will set up a cargo hub in the city.
Deccan Cargo, set up by the erstwhile Air Deccan management, plans to begin cargo transport operations through 10 aircraft from here early next year, Gopinath said in his presentation before the media and senior executives of the two companies after signing the agreement.
Describing the MoU as a historic step for the Indian industry, Gopinath said with the acquisition of 10 aircraft, his company's cargo handling capacity will be twice as much as that of the Indian Airlines, and that it will reach out to over 66 cities in India where Air Deccan had already reached.
'The air cargo connectivity in the country is limited to only seven cities as of now, leaving out cargo in the smaller cities that accounts for 85 percent of the GDP', he said adding that increase in the velocity of business cargo will put India in league of five top global economies in the next ten years.
'Nagpur is set to change the logistics backbone of India,' the Deccan Cargo CEO said, expressing happiness about his studied choice of the centrally located city as the hub for the company's cargo handling operations.
The company proposes to make an initial investment of Rs.14 billion for setting up the hub on 50 acres the MADC has offered it for parking and maintenance of aircraft and handling the cargo redistribution.
'The hub will facilitate fast air cargo movement and provide the apples in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir and oranges in Nagpur a timely access to the world market,' Gopinath concluded.
Nagpur airport all set to take off as cargo hub
With a view to developing the Nagpur airport into a cargo and passenger hub, the civil aviation ministry has proposed a five-year exemption on all airport and navigation charges. This is for airlines undertaking cargo operations to and from the Nagpur airport. The exemption extends to both domestic and international sectors.
According to civil aviation minister Praful Patel, work on the new cargo terminal will start in a few months and the objections raised by defence authorities on land-related issues have been sorted out.
Earlier, at an IATA summit, he said the government was looking at opening up the aviation sector more and was already deliberating allowing 74% FDI in air cargo, non-scheduled operation and sea planes, among others.
Air cargo has not even scratched the surface of cargo industry in India. According to the Airbus market outlook for the next 20 years, the number of dedicated freights in India will go up from the current dismal figure of eight to around 165 aircraft by 2025. Public sector carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India, have already firmed up their plans to convert some of their ageing fleet into dedicated cargo freighters and use Nagpur as the centre of their cargo operations.
Buoyed by the opening up of the retail sector, private sector low fare carriers-Air Deccan, Go Air, SpiceJet and Indigo, also plan to launch cargo operations soon. A joint venture company of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd (MADC) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) will develop the cargo hub.
Govt approves JV for cargo hub in Nagpur
"Approval has been granted to the establishment of the first joint venture (AAI-MADC) and transfer of the land and assets to it," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters here. In this JV, AAI would hold 49 per cent and MADC 51 per cent.
The first JV firm would then invite and select a private partner and form a second JV, in which the former would hold 24 per cent equity and the latter 76 per cent, he said, adding that a concession agreement would then be signed between the parties in the second JV.
"The airport will be developed in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode," Chidambaram said.
