Varanasi, Amritsar, Indore & more! Another six airports may be privatised; check list

Six more airports across India to be privatised? Airports in Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Trichy, and Raipur should be privatised, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has recommended to the Central government, according to a PTI report. The decision was taken during AAI’s board meeting on September 5. As the AAI board gave its approval for the move, the recommendation was forwarded to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Six airports, namely Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport (ATQ) in Amritsar, Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS) in Varanasi, Biju Patnaik International Airport (BBI) in Bhubaneswar, Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport (IDR) in Indore, Swami Vivekananda International Airport (RPR) in Raipur, Tiruchirappalli International Airport (TRZ) in Trichy have been recommended for privatisation.

In February, the Central government decided to privatise six airports- Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (LKO) in Lucknow, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (AMD) in Ahmedabad, Jaipur International Airport (JAI), Mangalore International Airport (IXE), Trivandrum International (TRV) in Thiruvananthapuram, and Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (GAU) in Guwahati. These airports would be operated, managed, developed under public-private partnership (PPP) model, the report said.

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In February, the Adani group had bagged the contract for all these airports in the bidding process. Adani was chosen after its bids emerged highest among the “per-passenger fee” offered by the other bidders.

AAI works under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Over 100 airports across the country are being owned and managed by AAI. In July, top AAI official stated that the authority would privatise 20-25 more in the next phase, as per the report.

AAI was also planning to monetise land near eight major airports to develop airport infrastructure. The land has been identified near Kolkata airport, Bhubaneswar airport, Amritsar airport, Jaipur airport, Varanasi airport, Lucknow airport, Raipur airport, and Tirupati airport.