The Airports Authority of India has shelved plans to privatise the operation and maintenance of the Chennai Airport and the bids called last year have been withdrawn, according to Chennai Airport Director Deepak Shastri.

This follows the sanction of ₹1,000 crore to the Chennai airport to reconstruct the old terminal, which will be integrated with the new terminal, he told BusinessLine . “We have just started the process with the plan in the drawing board. Depending upon the plan, it will take nine to 18 months to complete the project,” he said.

The AAI spent nearly ₹2,400 crore to construct a new terminal building and other aeronautical infrastructure at the airport. It then decided to undertake Operation, Management and Development of the airport through a public-private partnership on Operate, Manage, Develop and Transfer basis. It floated bids last December calling for Request for Qualification but the process was delayed.

Representatives from Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, GVK Airport Holdings, GMR Airport Holdings, Egis Avia, Celebi Aviation, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, Pithavadian and Partners and Flemingo Intl Ltd visited the airport as part of the RFQ. The concessionaire was expected to invest ₹492 crore to modify the old international terminal building, provide connectivity tube to metro rail and upgrade the taxiways and runway.

Now, all these will be undertaken by AAI, Shastri said.

‘No fear’

“We are very happy with the decision of AAI. The fear of privatisation among employees has now gone. ,” AAI Employees Union chief L George told BusinessLine . George said that the privatisation of airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad has only increased the cost of travel through these airports. The user development fees ranged between ₹1,000 and ₹3,000 at these airports . However, at Chennai it is ₹107 for domestic and ₹167 for international passengers.

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