AAI extention to delay airport privatisation

The privatisation of four airports, including Chennai and Kolkata, will be delayed as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has extended the deadline for submitting bids for the second time.

The private players can now submit their application for shortlisting until July 1. The previous deadline was ending on Tuesday. “The first deadline was set on March 24 but it was extended to May 26. But now this has also been extended,” a senior official said.

The AAI had invited ‘Request for Qualification’’ (RFQ) to handover the management, operations and development of the state-controlled airports in Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur last year. The move came amid opposition by employees who had periodically gone on protest.

A parliamentary panel had also earlier said the government was stifling the AAI by offering profit-making airports to private players “on a platter”after spending public money for its modernisation while keeping with it “only loss-making” facilities in small towns. The modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports alone has cost the AAI Rs 2,325 crore and Rs 2,015 crore respectively.

Corporates including Tata and Adani groups, existing airport operators GMR and GVK groups as well as Siemens Postal Parcel and Airport Logistics, Zurich-based International Business Development Flughafen and Cochin International Airport have expressed interest in the these airports.

The applicants are learnt to have asked AAI to give a longer concession period than the 30 years as stipulated in the RFQ besides traffic growth and tariff projections.
DH News Service