Levying of user fee at new airport resented

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The Kerala Association of Travel Agents (KATA) has expressed deep resentment at the decision to levy a user fee of Rs.755 on all departing international passengers at the new Thiruvananthapuram airport to be opened shortly.

“This fee is now being levied in airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad and mind you those airports were built under private-public partnership, whereas the airport here is not a private one. This is fleecing of passengers,” said KATA president K.V. Muraleedharan.

Bangalore airport levies a user fee of Rs 1,070, while the Hyderabad airport charges Rs.1,000 from passengers.

The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority has reportedly cleared the levy on the ground that the cost of building the airport has shot up from Rs.245 crore to Rs.289 crore and hence a user fee has to be levied.

“This is totally unacceptable because a Rs.200 crore new terminal was opened at Kozhikode last year and there is no user fee for that. Similarly, two years back the Kochi airport withdrew the Rs.500 user fee. This is discrimination,” said Muraleedharan.

Former minister of state for external affairs and Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor told reporters that he was in touch with officials concerned on this issue.

“I don’t think that this should be the manner to recover the excess cost incurred in building the airport and moreover, this is not a private airport either. I am waiting to hear from them,” said Tharoor.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for the new airport in 2006.

A large number of Keralites of the state’s southern districts and people from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, a majority of whom are employed in the Middle-East countries, use the airport here.

According to KATA, around one million international passengers departed from this airport last year.

The present airport can cater to only about 500 passengers at a time. But the new one would be able to handle up to 800 passengers.