Suresh Prabhu chairs meet on AAI land monitisation

Suresh Prabhu/ File Pic

As part, its efforts to monetize lands of the Airport Authority of India, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting to review framing of land use regulations for their commercial exploitation.

"Took comprehensive review on framing land use regulations for the Airports Authority of India to facilitate vibrant economic activity at and around airports," the minister tweeted after the meeting.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha was also present. Further details about the outcome of the review meeting remained unclear.

The national airports' operator, which manages 125 aerodromes, including civil enclaves, is awaiting amendments to the AAI Act that would allow effective monetization of land assets. These land could commercially be utilised for providing non-aeronautical services like bank ATMs, hotels, motels, general retail shops etc.

The AAI owns around 55,000 hectares of land in urban areas across the country. Under the current norms, airport land can be used only for limited purposes. Presenting the Union Budget for 2017-18 last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the AAI Act would be amended to enable effective monetisation of land assets.

Sinha had, however, in August last year informed Parliament that the government's plan to liberalise land usage by AAI airports by amending law has been put on hold pending a decision from the Supreme Court on the matter.

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