HCC Infrastructure to enter airports business

HCC Infrastructure, wholly-owned subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Co Ltd, is entering the business of building and operating airports.

"We are currently evaluating three airports in three smaller cities in the country, which we will be looking at building and operating.

Delhi and Mumbai were mega airports and now the growth will come from airports in smaller cities, which we plan to tap," said Vinayak Deshpande, president and chief operating officer of HCC Ltd, parent company for HCC Infra.

HCC Infra has an annual investment outlay of Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion), to be invested across sectors. "We have not allocated any money for the airport vertical, as such, but these airport projects will be in smaller cities and not in mega cities," Deshpande said.

HCC Infra is engaged in the creation and management of assets in the areas of roads and power. The company also built the landmark  Bandra-Worli Sealink in Mumbai.

Deshpande did not share the names of the airport projects they were evaluating but hinted Goa could be one.

"Many smaller cities will see greenfield (new) airports coming up and we will tap that market," he said.

HCC Ltd recently acquired a controlling stake in Karl Steiner AG, a Swiss company with expertise in constructing world-class 'green' buildings. Among many others, Steiner has the experience of building Terminal-3 at the Geneva airport.

"We will use Steiner's expertise in getting building contracts for airports in foreign countries as well as using them in India. But we can only look at operating airports out of India once we get some experience in India," said Deshpande.

HCC Infra will be the third Indian infrastructure company to enter airport operation and development, after GMR Infrastructure and GVK Infrastructure. Bangalore-headquartered GMR Infra-led consortiums operate Hyderabad and Delhi airports.

Hyderabad-based GVK Infra-led consortiums operate Mumbai and Bangalore airports.

GMR has also gone international and built and operates an airport in Istanbul, Turkeym and may also get to build an airport in the Maldives. GVK is also looking at opportunities outside the country.