Aviation

Government to invite bids to privatise six airports on December 10

Updated : November 21, 2018 09:22 AM IST

The six airports include those in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Lucknow.

On November 8, the cabinet had approved the in-principal approval for leasing out the airports for operation, management and development.

Any issue that is beyond the scope of PPPAC would be dealt with by an empowered group of secretaries.

The government will invite bids for leasing out six airports of Airports Authority of India, said Jayant Sinha, MoS civil aviation, adding that the ministry hopes to complete the transaction process by February, 2019.

The six airports include those in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Lucknow.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Sinha said that after extensive discussions with stakeholders the ministry concluded that privatisation of an airport on a model like that of Delhi, Mumbai will invite better response from the investor community across domestic and global arenas.

On November 8, the cabinet had approved the in-principal approval for leasing out the airports for operation, management and development under Public Private Partnership through Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee.

Any issue that is beyond the scope of PPPAC would be dealt with by an empowered group of secretaries, an official tweet had said.

The group would be headed by NITI Aayog CEO and secretaries of Civil Aviation Ministry, Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Expenditure would be part of the group.

The move, which is expected to enhance the revenue of state-run AAI, comes after multiple attempts at privatising Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports that did not yield results even after changing the bidding norms several times.

"International operators and investors prefer brownfield airport expansion opportunities with having more than 3-4 million passenger capacity. The airport sector may provide an immediate opportunity to attract foreign direct investment by adoption of a PPP approach," the release issued earlier in November had said.

Government to invite bids to privatise six airports on December 10

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