Shyamhari Chakra
Following Delhi and Mumbai, three Indian airports – Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram – operating under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have come under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode of management.
In a major move, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, approved the proposal for leasing out of the three airports for operation, management and development.
M/s Adani Enterprises Ltd was declared as the successful bidder in a global competitive bidding conducted by the AAI.
The least would last for a period of 50 years.
“These PPP mode projects will bring efficiency in service delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism apart from harnessing the needed investments in the public sector,” AAI hoped.
A decade ago, Government leased out the AAI airports at Delhi and Mumbai on PPE mode for operation, management and development.
Delhi and Mumbai airports are being managed by private companies GMR and GVK respectively.
“These PPP experiments have helped create world class airports and helped in delivery of efficient and quality services to the airport passengers. It has also helped AAI in enhancing its revenue generation and focus on developing airports and air navigation infrastructure across rest of India,” the sources claimed.
Revenue received by AAI from PPP partners enabled AAI to create infrastructure facilities in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and also to upgrade their airports to international standards, the statement added.
The two PPP airports in India are consistently ranked among the top 5 in their respective categories by the Airports Council International in terms of airport service quality, AAI stated.
The Cabinet had already cleared the Ministry of Civil Aviation proposal to lease out Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru airports through PPP mode to the Adani group for a period of 50 years, it was learnt.
