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Aviation Min to seek nod for 6 more airports' privatisation
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SME Times News Bureau | 19 Oct, 2019
Undeterred by staff protests, the Civil Aviation Ministry would seek
Cabinet approval for privatising half a dozen more airports by the first
week of December.
The six airports up for privatisation are Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur.
"The
Airports Authority of India (AAI) board has approved the plan. We will
seek in-principle approval of the Cabinet now. Once it is approved, the
bidding process would start," said an official source.
The Ministry hopes to complete the bidding process by the end of this financial year.
The
move to bid out more airports to private companies has come close on
the heels of government privatising six airports. Gujarat-based Adani
Enterprises was the highest bidder for all the six airports. While the
Union Cabinet has approved leasing out of three airports - Ahmedabad,
Lucknow and Mangaluru - to Adani, the other three airports - Jaipur,
Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram - are currently on hold due to some
pending issues. In case of all the airports, the lease period is 50
years.
Defending the government decision to privatise more
airports, an official said that AAI would get more revenue as a result
of this and focus on the development of smaller airports.
"The
six airports which are being leased out generated a combined profit of
Rs 220-250 crore for the AAI. After privatisation, the AAI would get Rs
900-1,100 crore in a year without making any expense," the official
said.
It, however, may be noted that government, for the last two
years, has been making claim over the AAI's almost entire profits
requiring the state agency to part with it as dividend.
Unionised
staff of AAI has been protesting against government move to privatise
airports fearing job losses and early retirement. They staged a sit-in
at Jantar Mantar in the Capital to protest against the government move.
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