Adani Group wins bid for Guwahati airport; emerges winner to operate all six airports under govt's privatisation drive

The Adani group has won the Guwahati International airport bid thus winning rights to operate all six airports under the government’s privatisation drive. By quoting Rs 160 as per passenger fare for the airport, the group emerged as the highest bidder leaving behind state-backed National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) by a margin of Rs 5, according to a report in Moneycontrol. Earlier, the Adani group had won the bid to operate five out of six airports that were put for privatisation by the central government, a senior official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_5109331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Adanis were the highest bidder for Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Jaipur airports, the official said. The bid for the Guwahati airport was opened today. AAI chose the winner on the basis of “monthly per-passenger fee”. The official said the bids put by Adani group were “very aggressive” as compared to other bidders. The five airports would be handed over to Adani group after completion of formalities, the AAI official said. A total of 32 technical bids were received from 10 companies to operate six airports that are currently under AAI’s management. In November last year, the government had cleared a proposal for managing six AAI-run airports on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports received seven bids each. Lucknow and Guwahati received six bids each. Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram received three bids each. The move to manage the six airports on PPP basis, according to AAI, is part of an initiative to provide world-class infrastructure and services to stakeholders.