9.11.18

Cabinet gives nod to private management of six more airports

The Union cabinet gave its approval for privatization of the management of six airports, including those in Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

The government’s experience of managing five airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi and Hyderabad through private participation has been encouraging and has led it to adopt a similar method in managing six more airports, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The Union cabinet has given... “in-principle approval for leasing out six airports of AAI viz. Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru for operation, management and development under public-private partnership through (the) Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee,” he said.

Private participation in infrastructure projects brings efficiency in service delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism, apart from harnessing the investments in the public sector, according to a cabinet statement.

PPP in airport management has helped the government raise sizeable revenue and utilize the model for better air connectivity elsewhere in the country, the government said. It hopes the move will bring more foreign investment into airport infrastructure. However, it is not immediately clear whether the private players in the six airports that are to be jointly managed will get land parcels for real estate development beyond aviation requirements. The government also set up an empowered committee of secretaries to oversee the process.

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