Delhi airport to ‘boost its capacity soon’

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday called for greater investment to improve the country’s infrastructure and said that the Delhi airport will soon be investing nearly Rs90bn.Naidu was speaking at an event to unveil two publications - “The Economic Impact of Delhi Airport” and a coffee table book on the 10-year journey of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in its new avatar.“The world today faces a variety of economic challenges as well as extreme volatility on various fronts. At times like this, it is important that appropriate investments be made to increase and improve the infrastructure within the country,” Naidu said.“I am informed that Delhi Airport will soon be spending nearly Rs9,000 crore to boost its capacity to nearly 100mn passengers per annum.”The vice president added that the safety of passengers should be paramount for any transportation service and asked the aviation industry to place passengers’ convenience at the centre of all their activities.The “Economic Impact Study” of the airport managed and operated by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) has been done by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).The GMR Group-led DIAL is a consortium comprising GMR Group, Airports Authority of India and Fraport.The consortium has a mandate to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the Delhi Airport for 30 years with an option to extend it by another 30 years According to the report, operations of the airport have a significant economic and social impact in Delhi-NCR and surrounding regions.“It is estimated that efficient aviation infrastructure has more than three times multiplier impact on the economy and Delhi airport has delivered much beyond that,” said G M Rao, chairman of GMR Group.