The privatisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports will be delayed as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has extended the deadline for short-listing the operator.
In the case of Chennai, the date has been extended by seven weeks to December 23, and for Kolkata, from November 25 to January 20.
For the Ahmedabad airport, too, the short-listing date has been extended to January 20 from November 20.
The only exception is Lucknow airport, where the date has been advanced to November 27 from December 15. The schedule for bidding will be announced separately.
In the case of Chennai, the AAI originally planned to open the bids on January 21, award the letter to the successful bidder within 30 days, and sign the concession agreement in the next 30 days. The entire process has now been delayed.
The reason for the change has not been given, with AAI officials declining to comment on the issue.
At least nine parties, including IL&FS Transportation Networks, Essar Projects India, Cochin International, Essel Infraprojects, GVK Power and Infrastructure, Fraport Saudi Arabia, GMR Airports, the Sahara Group, and Turkish firm Celebi Habacilik Holding are interested in participating in the Chennai project.
Representatives from the nine companies had visited the airport on October 9.
The privatisation of the airports has run into trouble as the Government has been trying to complete the entire process in a very short time. Recently, senior officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry said the concession agreements need to be worked on further, but asserted the job will be completed soon.
More expensive
AAI’s decision to extend the dates comes days after the Parliamentary Standing Committee opposed the Centre’s decision to privatise six airports, including those in Chennai and Kolkata.
The Committee has advocated long-term management contracts with private players for operating the airports, Sitaram Yechury, Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, had said on Friday.
Yechury said privatising makes travel more expensive, and cited the case of the Delhi airport, which levies both arrival and departure fees on passengers. Delhi was owned and operated by the AAI before a consortium led by the GMR group was awarded the right to modernise the airport.
Union happy
Soon after news of the delay became public, L. George, Regional Secretary, Airports Authority Employees Union, said, “It’s very good news because the postponement will push the date closer to the Lok Sabha election date announcement. Then, the Election Code of Conduct will be enforced, delaying the whole privatisation programme.”
George said the Communist Party of India leader and Rajya Sabha member D. Raja had assured the airport employees on Monday that his party would oppose any privatisation move of the airports at the forthcoming winter session of Parliament.
The union, he said, will continue its protests and soon chalk out its next strategy.