Adani group rejigs airport business leadership; to relocate AAHL head office from Mumbai to Ahmedabad

Mumbai: In an organisational rejig, Adani Group has appointed the Mumbai airport’s Chief Executive Officer RK Jain as its CEO of airports, replacing incumbent Ben Zandi, who will now take over as the CEO of non-aero business at Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. The reshuffle comes after Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), the group’s flagship company for airports business and Adani Enterprises’ wholly-owned subsidiary, last week took management of the Mumbai Airport International Airport Ltd (MIAL) from the GVK group. Prakash Tulsiani, president (operations) at AAHL, will take over as the CEO of MIAL, according to a communication dated 17 July. Besides, the group has also decided to shift AAHL’s head office to Ahmedabad from Mumbai, as per the communication. MIAL also holds a 74 percent stake in the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport. In August last year, Adani Group had announced that it would acquire GVK Group’s stake in Mumbai airport. After the stake purchase transaction, Adani Group will have a 74 percent stake in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, with 50.5 percent being bought from GVK Group and 23.5 percent from minority partners, including Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and Bidvest Group. “As we look to consolidate and pursue aggressive growth of the Adani Group in the airports sector, it has been decided to relocate the head office of AAHL from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. “We believe this decision will foster collaborative working and agile decision making, which is of paramount importance at this stage of our journey,” Malay Mahadeviya, chief executive officer of AAHL, said in the communication. He said that with the successful transition of MIAL and Navi Mumbai Inetrnational Airport Ltd (NMIAL) into AAHL, “we are also pleased to announce the… changes in the leadership across AAHL”. According to the communication, MIAL Chief Executive RK Jain, who has been associated with MIAL since its inception and has been instrumental in developing it as one of the leading airports in India, will take over as CEO (airports) from Ben Zandi. Jain has been credited with winning Navi Mumbai Airport Project and was actively involved as CEO of NMIAL, it said adding, “He will be fully involved to shape scheme for airport slum rehabilitation to take it to implementation stage.” He will also be involved in airport regulatory issues. The CEO of MIAL and chief airport officers of Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Guwahati, Trivandrum and Jaipur will report to him. Jain will report to Mahadeviya, it added. Zandi will take over as CEO of non-aero business, AAHL. He has been instrumental in establishing the Adani airports business and has successfully completed the COD (commercial operation date) of three airports, as per the communication. It also stated that Dinaz Madhukar, CCSO of AAHL, and Ramesh M, CCO of AAHL, will report to Ben. AAHL said Prakash Tulsiani, president (operations) of AAHL, will take over as CEO of Mumbai International Airport Limited and will be based in Mumbai and report to Jain. Similarly, BVJK Sharma, director (ports) of APSEZ, will take over as the CEO of Navi Mumbai International Airport from Jain. Sharma, with over 40 years of career during which he served as joint MD and CEO of JSW Infrastructure Ltd, was instrumental in the development and operations of Mundra Port in its initial years. Also, as part of the rejig, Prabhat Mahapatra, head (operations) at MIAL, will assume the newly created role of Head Operations Center of Excellence (COE) and will report to Jain. He will work towards strengthening and further augmenting the aero operation capabilities across all airports of AAHL, it stated. BG Gandhi, chief operating officer of Krishnapatnam Port, will assume role of chief airport officer in Adani Ahmedabad International Airport Limited in place of Subhash M, who has decided to pursue career options outside Adani Group, according to the communication. Manoj Katar, chief operating officer of Dahej Port, will assume the role of head (operations) at MIAL from Mahapatra and will report to Prakash Tulsiani and will be based in Mumbai, it said. Nirav Shah, general manager of MPSEZ Utilities Pvt Ltd, will assume role of chief airport officer of Adani Mangaluru International Airport Limited in place of Ashutosh Chandra, who has decided to pursue career options outside Adani Group. Shah will report to R K Jain and will be based in Mangaluru, as per the communication. Vishnu Jha, currently Head Operations T-1 and General Aviation Terminal at MIAL, is appointed as chief airport officer, Jaipur; while Rekha Nair, currently head (airport service) at MIAL will take over the newly created role of head (customer experience and quality) for AAHL, said the communication. With eight airports in its management and development portfolio, Adani Airport Holdings is now India’s largest airport infrastructure company, accounting for 25 per cent airport footfalls, the company said in the statement. The Centre had in February 2019 privatised six major airports of the country: Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati. Through a competitive bidding process, the Adani group won the rights to run all of them for 50 years.