Aims to Revamp Airport Sector, Adani's plan to invest Rs.60,000 crore

Real Estate giant Adani Group is planning to invest Rs.60,000 crore over the next ten years to develop its airports into aviation hubs and commercial attractions for city residents. Presently, the Group is operating seven airports in the country and has one under construction in Navi Mumbai. Counting all of them together the airports have annual passenger handling capacity of 100-110 million. Further they are planning to increase the capacity by 2.5-3x by 2040.

Adani Group is investing Rs.30,000 crore in enhancing airport terminal and airside facilities at group airports in next five years. This investment will be in addition to the Rs.18,000 crore it has already invested in building the first phase of Navi Mumbai airport.

Sunday, after the inauguration newly integrated terminal at Lucknow, CEO of Adani Airport Holdings Limited, Arun Bansal, stated, “We are building a new terminal in Guwahati. We have a plan to build a new terminal in Ahmedabad. Early next year, the Navi Mumbai airport will start and will have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year.”

The managing director of Adani Ports and SEZ Limited, Karan Adani told that, the airports operated by Adani Group in Ahmedabad and Lucknow will turn into aviation hubs with direct connectivity to Europe and the US in near future. The residents of Ahmedabad or Lucknow can travel to Europe or US via West Asia, Delhi or Mumbai. He said that, “What we will see is that these airports will be connected directly to the destinations overseas.”

Furthermore, the group plans to invest Rs.30,000 crore in city side developments at eight airports over ten years. Under this investment they have also targeted to include construction of hotels, multiplexes and other facilities. The company wants to raise good amount of revenue from commercial development as aeronautical tariffs expects commercial investments to materialize over ten years depending on various approvals.

Bansal further added, “Internationally, our strategy is to participate in airport development opportunities where it makes sense for the group, where there is larger opportunity in the country to participate in ports, transmission etc. We are looking at one specific country at the moment.”