Airport Authority of India (AAI) has proposed the centre to privatise airports of Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy, said a senior government official.
AAI, which works under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and handles more than 100 airports across the country came up with the recommendation as the centre has already privatised airports at Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for operations, management and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model in February this year.
A senior government official told a news agency, “As six airports have already been privatised in February this year, the AAI in its board meeting on September 5 decided to privatise six more airports: Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.”
Further he adds, “Once the board took this decision, the recommendation was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation,”
In the first round of airport privatisation held in February this year, the Adani group bagged the contract for all six airports by winning the bids with huge margins.
The highest bidder was selected on the basis of the steepest per-passenger fee that the company will pay to the AAI monthly for 50 years.
The union cabinet on 3rd July had approved the leasing out of Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore airports to Adani Group.
However, the approval of leasing out the other three are yet to be done by the cabinet.
