Attention fliers: Pay higher airport fee from May 1

The regulator has allowed Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to charge a development fee for a period of 23 months. Domestic fliers will have to pay Rs 100 and international travelers Rs 600 towards airport development charges.

The charges will be in effect from May 1, 2012 till the end of April 2014.

The hike as proposed to fund a gap of Rs 876 crore. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the regulator will consider cost escalation of Rs 12,380 crore only after audit. It will take review the rates and tenure of development levy post the cost audit.

The Mumbai airport came up for modernization in 2006, and was overhauled by the GVK Group-led consortium in partnership with the Airports Authority of India. The initial cost of the project was Rs 5800 crore, but due to time and cost over-runs, the final bill came to around Rs.9,800 crore. 

GVK, the operator of the airport is also facing problems rehabilitating slum-dwellers displaced for the project.  In December last year, it had sought two plots for rehabilitating around 80,000 project-affected people (PAP). But Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan turned down the demand for the plots, one at Santa Cruz belonging to the Mumbai University and the other at Kanjur Marg ear-marked for a dumping ground.