Economic Survey: Despite complaints, govt praises its airport development plan

New Delhi: The government has patted itself of the back about developing some airports under the PPP model, saying this model has meant significant improvement in infrastructure and in collection of revenues.

As per the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament today, domestic passenger throughput increased by 7.1 per cent between April-December 2014 while increase in international passengers was 10.3 per cent.

As of now, five Indian airports have been given to private developers on a revenue sharing model- Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Bengaluru.

Four more are in the process of being given out to private parties for development - Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

Not only has the privatisation of these four airports seen the government go back and forth on which PPP model to adopt. In the case of at least two airports large amounts of investment have been made in recent times, by the Airports Authority of India, with disastrous consequences.

Besides, many anomalies have been alleged in even the earlier round of privatisation with CAG making adverse observations in the case of the nation’s two largest airports: Delhi and Mumbai. The popular perception of government’s privatising airports is: it leads to better airport facilities but pushes up costs for airlines as well as passengers.

And allegations abound over private developers under investing in upgradation of airport infrastructure.

In the new round of PPP development of 4 airports, already questions are being raised over why AAI invested thousands of crores in Kolkata and Chennai and got poor work quality due to which they are again to be upgraded by private developers.

Not only are employees at these airports against privatisation due to fears of losing jobs, but even interested private parties are unhappy over conditions under which they must bid for contracts.

The Economic Survey says state owned AAI is managing 125 airports and has finalised a no-frills airport model for enhancing remote area connectivity. The AAI has completed development of airports at Bikaner and Jaisalmer, Bhatinda and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh. Interestingly, it makes no mention of airlines under Civil Aviation.