DIAL is a consortium led by GMR, Germany's Fraport AG and Malaysia Airport Holdings. According to the report 4800 acres of land of a brownfield airport could be developed commercially at Rs. 100 every year. The report states that the land has an earnings potential of 1.63 lakh crores which was assigned to the consortium against an equity contribution of 2,450 crores. The report also criticizes the development fees charged to passengers of the Delhi Airport who have to pay between Rs. 400 and Rs. 2600 depending on whether they are travelling on a domestic or international flight, as this charge was not a part of the original contract. According to the report this fee gives DIAL an advantage of Rs. 3,415 crores, and should have been approved by the ministry and then mentioned initially to all parties bidding for the deal. The report also mentions that DIAL carried out construction on 553,887 square meters of land while it was allotted only 470,179 square meters in the major Development Plan which led to an increase of the projected cost by 43%. The DIAL in its defense has stated that the amount mentioned is the simply the amount of revenue due to DIAL and does not represent actual revenues; it does not consider the time value of money and it does not mention that 46% of this revenue is due to the Airports Authority of India. The DIAL also states that the entire land allotted to it for commercial use cannot be used immediately and would have to be developed in the future and hence, the revenue earned from the one acre currently in use cannot be applied to the entire parcel of land. Further more, DIAL points out that the commercial usage of land was always a part of the agreement and was not given to it as preferential treatment, and that the parceling of this land has saved the governmenta lot of money in stamp duties.
Criticisms
The Kissan Mahasanhg which is heading an agitation against the acquisition of land for the airport has called this deal a lose-lose deal highlighting the losses of the farmers and the losses of the passengers. CPM MP K. Balagopal has demanded a probe by a Federal Agency into the scam and has also pointed out that the Supreme Court has already ruled the charging of Development Fee as illegal.
