Fliers from Kolkata, Chennai airports to pay high user fees

New Delhi: Even as the government auditor has cribbed at the high cost of constructing Delhi and Mumbai airports, it has approved a far higher set of costs for the government-run Kolkata and Chennai airports, but which will have to be borne by the passengers.
Worse, the generous cash padding leaves the owner, in this case the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with far less money to finance the 32 other airports it is supposed to bring up to standards to allow for the expansion of the aviation market in India.
At the same time the private sector BIAL has built the Bangalore airport using cash far more efficiently.
At the heart of the excessive cost padding for the AAI-run public sector airports is the percentage of equity that has been built into them.
For instance while the privately built Bangalore airport has a debt-equity ratio of 70:30, the two public sector airports have an equity share of 92 per cent.
Read News In full 16/12/13 Subhomoy Bhattacharjee/Mihir/Financial Express