Concerns of employees of the Airports Authority of India as well as tariff related issues raised by private sector firms interested in participating in the modernisation of Chennai, Kolkata and two other airports will have to be looked into before the process can move forward, RK Shrivastava, the newly appointed AAI Chairman said on Monday. Ahmedabad and Jaipur are the other two airports that AAI plans to modernise by involving the private sector.
Speaking to newspersons in his maiden press conference after taking charge, Shrivastava conceded that there were many issues related to HR and added that some decisions needed to be taken. He conceded that it was mainly HR and tariff related issues which had made the Authority extend the last date for submission of bids for qualification to be extended by two months to end May this year.
“The Government is aware of the employees' charter of demands and will address their problems. The employees are keen that their new service conditions after the airports pass into private hands are not detrimental to their careers,” the Chairman said but declined to get into details.
Employees have questioned the rationale of going in for the PPP mode to develop airports, especially those at Kolkata and Chennai where AAI has already invested large sums of money.
In Chennai, till now the investment has been a whopping ₹2,400 crore and the indicative project cost under PPP is ₹492 crore. In Kolkata, ₹2,700 crore has already been spent and the indicative project cost is ₹375 crore.
Private developers will have to undertake both, air side and city side development at the airports.
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.