MAHARASHTRA'S GRAND VISION FOR THE NAGPUR AIRPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MUMBAI 002090 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT. FOR SCA/INS, EB/TRA/OTP, EB/TRA/AN DEPT. PLEASE PASS TO DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION DEPT. PLEASE PASS TO EXIM BANK E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAIR PREL ETRD EFIN EIND EINV PINR IN SUBJECT: MAHARASHTRA'S GRAND VISION FOR THE NAGPUR AIRPORT REF: MUMBAI 1707 Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The Government of Maharashtra (GOM) has ambitious plans to convert Nagpur into a major regional transportation hub. During our recent trip to the city, located at the geographic heart of India, the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) explained its plans to build an integrated cargo facility for air, rail and road freight at the existing airport. A 3,700 acre special economic zone (SEZ) is also planned at the site. The MADC hopes the SEZ will blossom into a self-contained international city complete with a "health city" targeting foreign medical tourists. At the small Nagpur airport, which currently services ten flights a day, the state plans to build a second runway suitable for large jets. It also plans to construct a gigantic passenger terminal capable of servicing 14 million passengers yearly. The MADC says Nagpur could capture much of the transcontinental air traffic between Europe, Africa and Asia that now that crosses over India without landing. When questioned, however, MADC officials admit that the glittery plans for the passenger terminal will take a back seat to the SEZ and cargo hub, both of which appear to be more viable in the coming years. Boeing will locate its planned maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at the Nagpur airport, but was careful to avoid integration into either the SEZ or the cargo hub. End summary. Ambitious Plans for Nagpur's Small Airport -------------- ¶2. (U) The Government of Maharashtra (GOM) has embarked on an ambitious plan to convert Nagpur, a city of 2.2 million located in the geographical center of India, into a major transportation hub. The center of the vast project will be the Nagpur airport. At present, the Nagpur airport has one runway and serves around ten flights a day. Important national highways and key rail lines already meet near the city, we heard from the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) representatives who head the project. The MADC feels that the city's strategic position and the existing flows of truck and rail traffic will allow it to blossom into a significant integrated cargo hub. The airport's existing runway will be extended and a new, parallel runway constructed. A new, integrated road and rail terminus will allow reloading of cargo between trucks, railway freight cars and cargo planes. Plans for SEZ -------------- ¶3. (SBU) A special economic zone (SEZ) will be built adjacent to the airport. Nearly 3,700 acres are allocated for the SEZ. During a visit to the site, Congenoffs saw vast areas of flat grazing lands that were surprisingly empty and undeveloped despite being in close proximity to the city. Of all the projects that are envisaged at the Nagpur site, the planning for the SEZ appeared to be the most advanced. MADC has targeted IT companies and manufacturers for the SEZ. Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam, Dell, Larson and Toubro and clothing manufacturer Raymond have already announced their intentions to establish facilities within the SEZ. ¶4. (U) The Maharashtra state government also hopes to create a "health city" in the SEZ. It envisages that Indian and foreign health care providers will establish state-of-the-art clinics to attract foreign medical tourists. R.C. Sinha, vice-chairman and managing director of MADC, claimed that the cost of treatment in India was roughly one-tenth that of countries like the U.S. and believed that this huge cost differential and the modern, sophisticated medical facilities available in the health city would draw in foreign medical tourists. Sinha said he envisaged creating a customs and immigration "envelope" of SEZ and international airport to allow medical tourists to come for treatment without obtaining a visa. ¶5. (U) Sinha told us that the MADC hopes to create a complete, self-contained city within the SEZ. A stand-alone power plant will provide uninterrupted electricity to the SEZ (Nagpur, like much of India, faces power shortages.) New housing communities will offer homes that cater to the expectations of both Indian and expatriate corporate managers. International schools, a MUMBAI 00002090 002 OF 003 golf course/country club and shopping centers will create an environment that will attract top level corporate leaders to Nagpur, Sinha believed. ¶6. (U) The cost of the entire project, including the expansion of the existing airport, development of the integrated cargo terminal, and land acquisition and infrastructure support development for the SEZ and adjoining facilities is estimated at $685 million. Banks have already loaned around $65 million to the MADC for the initial phase of the project. The GOM has provided around $17 million and 200 hectares of land free of cost. About 90 percent of the project work should be completed by May 2009. ¶7. (SBU) Only about 600 families in several scattered villages needed to be relocated, MADC representatives told us. Like elsewhere in India, however, the fate of farmers losing their land to SEZ development has hit a political nerve. Chandrashekhar Bawankude, a BJP politician and member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, told us that he was fighting the MADC to obtain greater compensation for the farmers being resettled. He and the BJP were not against the project, he emphasized, but wanted to ensure that the farmers received more than what the MADC was currently offering. Glittery Plans for International Air Terminal -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The MADC also hopes to make the small domestic airport into a major international hub. Sinha told us that over 250 transcontinental flights -- between Europe and Southeast Asia/Australia and between southern Africa, the Gulf and northeast Asia -- cross over Nagpur each day. A modern international airport with amenities such as shopping malls, restaurants and top tier hotels would entice many international airlines to make a stop in Nagpur, Sinha believes, or even lure them into establishing a major international hub at the airport. A new terminal with docks for up to 50 aircraft and hangers for another 50 is planned, according to MADC officials, which would allow the airport to handle up to 14 million passengers a year. Boeing Avoids SEZ, Cargo Hub -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Boeing recently identified a site for its planned maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at the Nagpur airport (ref a). Dinesh Keskar, the company's Seattle-based senior VP for commercial aircraft sales, told us that the GOM wanted to locate the MRO within the SEZ to the south of the existing airport. Boeing refused, Keskar said, since it did not want its facility to be integrated into the complicated planning and construction activities of the SEZ. The GOM ultimately relented and gave Boeing a site to the north of the airport. Although physically detached from the rest of the SEZ, the GMO will grant the MRO the status of a SEZ and view it as part of the larger SEZ to the south of the airport. While initially only servicing planes from Indian carriers, Boeing ultimately plans to make its Nagpur operation into a service center for planes throughout south and southeast Asia, Keskar said. Comment -------------- ¶10. (SBU) It remains to be seen how much of the MADC's vision will actually become reality in the medium to long term. At the very least, the SEZ will clearly go operational in the coming years if the regulatory environment remains in place, since demand by Indian and selected foreign firms is clearly visible. The integrated cargo hub at the Nagpur airport should also attract freight traffic on account of the air- and land-based cargo transport that will grow in tandem with the modernization of the Indian economy in the coming years. The vision for an international passenger airport may remain a pipe dream, however. The MADC could not give us a plausible reason why foreign airlines or their passengers that are already flying over Indian territory non-stop would want to stop in the heartland of the country. The role of the airport in the domestic aviation market is bound to grow, but nowhere along the lines of the capacity foreseen in the state government's plans. In candid discussions MADC officials have admitted to us that the plans for the dramatic expansion of the passenger airport MUMBAI 00002090 003 OF 003 will take a back seat to all other plans for the hub. The MADC's glossy image campaign for the international air terminal may in fact be primarily a marketing tool to secure continued political support and funding for the SEZ and the cargo hub. End comment. OWEN