The government will allow commercial utilisation of 'city-facing' land at 23 non-metro airports to generate funds for their growth.
For this purpose, the Airports Authority of India has shortlisted two consortiums, one led by Ernst & Young and the other by UTI Bank.
The two consortiums are to come up with a detailed business plan for ten airports within the next four months, sources close to the development told Business Standard on Wednesday. The AAI is expected to float another tender for the remaining 13 airports soon.
The Ernst & Young consortium, which includes IDBI Capital Markets, will study the Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Udaipur, Amritsar and Guwahati airports.
The UTI Bank consortium will have consultancies like Chesterton Meghraj, Chesterton Petty, Landrum & Brown and Meghraj Financial Services Ltd. This consortium will look at the Goa, Mangalore, Lucknow, Trivandrum and Madurai airports.
Detailed plans for the Ahmedabad and Trivandrum airports will have to be submitted within a month, as these are international airports.
Although it is not clear how much money the government wants to mobilise through this exercise, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, has said that upgrading 23 airports could cost as much as Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion).
The consultants are required to figure out how the land owned by these airports could be commercially utilised.
"There are two components of the assignment: what can be done and how best to do it. In other words, we have to give the plans for the usage of the land and how to fund it," the sources said.
Elaborating the first component, the sources said various possibilities like setting up shopping malls, multiplexes and hotels could be explored.
The consultants will also suggest whether the land-development exercise should be undertaken by the airports themselves in partnership with the private sector, or should the entire exercise be left to the private sector.
Some of these airports are known to own 80-100 acres of land, which can be developed for a range of commercial activities.
Funding growth