People's Democracy

Cancel Passenger Fees in Delhi Airport

The Polit Bureau strongly condemns the UPA Government�s decision to allow M/s GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), to charge development fees of Rs 200 from domestic passengers and Rs 1300 from international passengers, on the untenable plea of the DIAL�s inability to raise money from the lenders and the market.

When the Left parties had strongly opposed the privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, the UPA Government had justified the same in the name of resource crunch of Airports Authority of India (AAI) vis-�-vis capability of GMR and other private agencies to mobilise resources. Under the circumstances, the UPA government cannot bail out GMR with public money in violation of the Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) entered between AAI and DIAL which specifically binds DIAL to complete the job for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games by 2010. As a matter of fact, the ministry of Civil Aviation had informed even in August 2008 that the progress of the job is satisfactory and the delay if any was only because of delay in obtaining approvals by DIAL.

The Polit Bureau demands that the government immediately rescind its approval to the levy of user charge by DIAL. The passengers cannot be asked to pay for the failure of the private company.

(February 10, 2009)