Air Passengers from Delhi to pay additional fee from March 1, 2009

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has approved of levying an additional User Development Fee (UDF) of Rs 200 on all domestic passengers and Rs.1,300 per head on those bound overseas from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the national capital as access development charges to its developer. The development fee will be paid to the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which has the Bangalore-based infrastructure major GMR and the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) as principal promoters, said an IANS report.

GMR has been mandated to upgrade and modernise the IGI Airport. “The development fee, which is being levied purely on an ad hoc basis, is inclusive of all applicable taxes and is for a period of 36 months only,” said an official communiqué from MoCA. The government or the designated regulator will determine the final development fee, based on final cost estimates presented by the developer, for which August 31, 2009 has been set as the deadline, added the official communiqué.

The final fee will also be based on the bids received for handing over parts of the airport property on lease to hospitality industry