| THE Rs 1,760-crore proposed Hyderabad International Airport (HIAL), promoted by GMR (63%), Malaysian Airports Holding Berhad (11%), Airports Authority of India (13%) and the AP government (13%), has taken a giant leap forward in achieving financial closure, signalling a go-ahead for the project, reports Our Hyderabad Bureau.
The airport’s first flight is set to take off from the new tarmac in the first quarter of ’08. HIAL MD Kiran Gandhi said, “We have scaled up capacity to handle 7m passengers per annum from the originally-planned 5m.”
Going by the growth in air traffic in Hyderabad, we decided to scale up capacities instead of expanding soon after starting operations.” The airport is also looking at emerging as a cargo and trans-shipment hub like international hubs in Dubai or Singapore.
The project, with a debt-equity ratio of 1.2:1, has a debt component of Rs 960 crore and equity of Rs 378 crore. The Andhra Pradesh government has also offered an interest-free loan of Rs 315 crore and a grant of Rs 107 crore. While IDFC is the lead financier to the project with a loan of Rs 200 crore, seven other banks including Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, IDBI, Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of Hyderabad and Vijaya Bank have contributed the balance.
The project cost of Rs 1,760 crore includes an additional contingency of Rs 97 crore. GMR group’s finance team has done the debt syndication for the project. The tenor for the repayment of loans, which have a coupon of 8%, is 16 years from the opening of the new airport. The interest-free loan of Rs 315 crore of the state government is repayable during the operations of the project.
The proposed international airport is targeting break-even at 8-10 years after commencement of operations. As per the revenue model, the airport will earn by way of aeronautical fees, aircraft handling fee, passenger services and other non-aviation sources.
HIAL is optimistic of buoyant air traffic growth in the city, given the increase of flight frequencies by foreign and domestic carriers. HIAL plans to set up 30 parking bays and is also open to setting up a separate terminal for low-cost carriers. The government of Andhra Pradesh has allotted 5,500 acres to the airport project. In the first phase, only 2,000 acres will be utilised. The airport could be expanded to handle 40-50m passengers per annum in the future.
|
