To boost India’s aviation sector and current infrastructure, India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) sanctioned loans worth ₹8,800 crore for the industry, Director PR Jaishankar has said on Sunday.
“So far, the IIFCL has sanctioned loans of about ₹8,800 crore with the disbursement of around ₹4,000 crore for the development of airport projects,” he told PTI.
He underlined the need to invest heavily in the industry to achieve the target to develop the civil aviation sector in the country. Being one of the major financiers of airports in India, IIFCL has supported airports with a total project outlay of about ₹74,000 crore. PR Jaishankar highlighted how the IIFCL is present in almost all major airports of the country.
Over the past few years, India has seen massive growth in the airport sector with increasing investments from both government and private sector, mainly due to a rising proportion of middle-income households, infrastructure build-up at leading airports and supportive policy framework.
As a result of expansion, the passenger handling capacity is expected to increase from the existing 350 million per annum to 500 million per annum by the end of the current financial year and 2 billion by 2047.
IIFCL will continue to extend its support to develop world-class airport infrastructure in India and explore opportunities in funding the greenfield airport projects, as well as maintenance, repairs and overhaul (MRO) facilities under the PPP mode by way of term loan, subscription to bonds, refinancing, or credit enhancement etc, Jaishankar said.
Highlighting the importance of the airport sector, Jaishankar said it holds the potential to provide a huge positive impact on the economy, with an economic multiplier of 3.1 and an employment multiplier of 6.
To meet the growing demand for air travel in India, he said, it has become imperative to increase the capacity of airport infrastructure.
According to the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), about ₹91,000 crore capex has been envisaged for the civil aviation sector in the five years till FY25.
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Updated: 08 Oct 2023, 05:35 PM IST
