Focus on heritage for Delhi centenary

Travellers on flights to Delhi could be able to learn more about some of the city's grandest sites as it celebrates its 100th year as the capital of India.

People who visit the city are often impressed by the architecture but do not understand much about it, according to A G K Menon, convener of conservation group Intach's Delhi Chapter.

He told the Times of India architects Herbert Baker and Edwin Lutyens were behind many of the most iconic structures, but many people will not understand when they are told the city was influenced by the Garden city movement.

"We will have to tell people what the Garden city movement was and how it influenced the construction of New Delhi," Mr Menon added.

While the history of the city could be celebrated by people on flights to Delhi, many could also be impressed by the modern Metro system, which was named as best clean development at the Urban Mobility Conference 2011.

DIAL to Charge Airport Development Fee(ADF)

NEW DELHI: Passengers who book flight tickets on or after December 1 for both international and domestic travel from Delhi till May 2013 will have to shell out extra money. The IGI airport management will start levying an Airport Development Fee (ADF) on each passenger who flies out of the IGI Airport to the tune of Rs 1,413 per international passenger and Rs 221 on each domestic passenger. Passengers who have already booked tickets for travel on or after December 1 will not be required to pay the ADF.

Tickets are also likely to get more expensive with fuel prices recording an average increase in of Rs 2,700 per kilolitre, effective from December 1. Airlines will incorporate this increase in ticket prices as well.

The decision to not charge ADF from passengers who have already purchased air tickets was taken by the civil aviation ministry and directorate general of civil aviation after airlines complained that they would have to collect the ADF from each passenger who had not paid so far when they reported for check-in.

"It has been decided to collect ADF only on tickets that are issued from December 1 so that we can avoid passengers having to queue up at the airport to pay the fee. Airlines had said that it would become a logistical nightmare for them to collect the amount which is not even a round figure and tender change to the hundreds of passengers who have already booked their tickets," said a senior ministry official.

Some airlines, like Air India, had already started collecting ADF since the third week of November but sources say that this money will not be refunded.

"There was no order from either the ministry or DGCA to collect ADF even though Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) had announced the implementation of the fee from December 1. However, if some airlines have 1, already collected the amount under the head of ADF, they will have to submit the money to Airports Authority of India," said highly placed sources.

DIAL had started collecting ADF from passengers since March 2009 but an order from the Delhi high court had stalled the exercise in June this year. The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) finally passed an order on November 16 that permitted DIAL to restart collection of ADF from December 1 for a period of 18 months.

"The ADF is Rs 1,300 for international passengers and Rs 200 for domestic passengers with an additional 10.3% service tax. We had initially been allowed to collect it for a period of 36 months starting March 2009 and have now received an extension of 18 months. This is the first phase of collection through which we hope to bridge our funding gap by Rs 1,230.27 crore. A cost of Rs 701 crore that would be incurred by DIAL from April 2010 would be recovered in phase-II of the ADF collection from June 2013 to February 2014," said DIAL officials. Source:Times Of India