Move to privatise 4 airports catches eye of GVK, GMR, Adani, but they want easier norms

The Government’s move to privatise airports at Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Chennai has generated interest among some well known developers even as protests from Airports Authority of India employees gather steam. [caption id=“attachment_2029237” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty images[/caption] All these airports are currently under the state-owned AAI and the government plans to offer them for operation, management and development to private parties through a bidding process. This, after going back and forth over which all airports to give to private developers for months together. Earlier, it had decided to ask private developers to just come for a management contract of the two large airports, Chennai and Kolkata. But after lukewarm interest from prospective developers, the Government was forced to offer all four airports for operation, management and development. According to officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, 8-9 private developers may come forward for placing bids. These include Mumbai airport developer GVK, Delhi airport developer GMR, Zurich Airports and the Adanis. At a pre-bid meeting organised by the AAI this afternoon, participants asked the Authority to consider more number of bidders before awarding airport contracts. The AAI had earlier said that only top 6 bidders would be considered. Another demand of the prospective bidders is to extend the contract for these airports beyond 30 years. According to the RFQ documents available on the AAI website, it has already spent Rs 600 crore in constructing a new terminal building and in creating other aeronautical infrastructure. The AAI is inviting bids for operation, management and development of the airport through the PPP model and has said that the indicative project cost would be Rs 472 crore. The private developer will have to undertake both, air side and city side development. In the case of Jaipur airport, AAI has already invested Rs 200 crore in building a new terminal building and other aeronautical infrastructure. The indicative project cost for further development under PPP is Rs 500 crore. In Chennai, the investment till now has been a whopping Rs 2400 crore and the indicative project cost under PPP is Rs 492 crore. In Kolkata, Rs 2700 crore has already been spent and the indicative project cost is Rs 375 crore.