CBI registers enquiry into Delhi airport land deal

The CBI on Wednesday registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against some government officials and a private company into the “irregularities” in the grant of lease of 190 acres land of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to Delhi airport operator DIAL.

The case has been registered against unknown officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the AAI and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on charges that they have committed “gross misconduct in the matter of lease of 190 acres of government land” at “nominal price as compared to the prevailing market price”.

A senior official said the registration of a PE  was imminent since the misappropriation was brought out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its 2012-13 report.

A spokesperson for GMR, which runs the Delhi airport, said they were not aware of any such enquiry. “On the contrary, both High court as well as Supreme court have upheld the award of IGI Airport to the GMR led consortium as early as in the year 2006,” it said.

According to the CAG, DIAL paid an upfront fee of Rs 150 crore to the AAI on April 29, 2006 for 4608.9 acres of land. In 2009, it was allotted an additional 190.19 acre for which “no negotiations in good faith as enjoined by the OMDA (Operation Management and Development Agreement) took place.”

“It would be seen that the upfront fee was used as base to calculate the price for the additional land provided by AAI to DIAL. This allowed AAI to lease out an additional 190.19 acres at a meager amount of Rs 6.19 crore,” the CAG had found.