Mumbai airport will levy additional development fees of Rs 20 and Rs 120 respectively on all departing domestic and international passengers in order to fund the construction of two metro stations nea
Mumbai airport will levy additional development fees of Rs 20 and Rs 120 respectively on all departing domestic and international passengers in order to fund the construction of two metro stations near the airport terminals. However, transport experts have opposed the move and one said he is planning to file a PIL over the issue.
The additional development fee was approved and announced by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority in an order Friday.
The additional levy will be applicable from April 1, 2016 and remain in force till March 31, 2021. The Mumbai International Airport limited had sought permission of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) last year, to charge additional development fee in order to fund the metro rail project.
According to the Mumbai airport operators, as the airport is working under a public private partnership, model, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had asked for the amount as per their contract. MMRDA sent an application with respect to this to the AERA, who permitted these charges. Prior to this, on October 9, 2015 a meeting took place between Mumbai airport operators, MMRDA and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC) to discuss these levy charges.
According to an official from Mumbai airport, as the Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL), runs on a PPP model, it has to invest in the metro project, and in return the airport operator will get 500 square metres at each of the metro stations, for metro passenger-related retail and other essential needs.
Jitendra Gupta, a transport expert, said, “Air passengers may or may not use Metro for their travel to reach or leave the airport. Then how is it logical to charge every passenger reaching the airport by other transport means for a development fund when the Metro is something they neither presently use nor may never use in the future.”
The GVK-controlled airport company already charges Rs 100 per domestic passenger and Rs 600 per international passenger as development fees.
Vishwas Bhamburkar, an Ahmedabad-based RTI activist, said, “Charging for metro from air passengers is irreverent and the government should think about other options, as providing good infrastructure is the responsibility of government.” Mr Bhamburkar said he is planning to move the court over this issue.
