Will PPP spell success for Indian airports?

The Centre is finalising guidelines for bringing operations and management of airports under PPP model. Five airports are selected to be developed under the ‘no-frills airports’ category.

The Centre is in the process of finalising guidelines for bringing operations and management of some airports under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model.

These operations are currently under control of Airports Authority of India (AAI). Civil Aviation Secretary

V Somasundaram said that the five airports selected to be developed under ‘no-frills airports’ category would be operational in the next two years.

“The model (under PPP) is mainly developed for the metro cities. The remaining airports are not in metro area. These are in medium cities. For these airports, we may need a revised model because we will not have the kind of volume which Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore have. So we are working on that,” Somasundaram said.

“Maybe within a month, we will come out with the guidelines. It is in an advanced stage. We need to change the guidelines for the PPP model. Then, they will call for RFQ,” he said, during his recent visit to cyclone-hit Visakhapatnam.

Last September, the Congressled UPA government had decided to allow private parties to pick up 100 per cent equity stake in operation and management of the six airports — Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow — through the PPP mode.

The move was vehemently opposed by the airports’ unions, alleging that it would reduce the already shrinking revenue of the AAI due to the privatisation of country’s two busiest airports — Mumbai and Delhi.

A parliamentary panel had last year also opposed privatisation of government airports in the country. However, the present government has reportedly decided to keep airports at Chennai and Kolkata out of the PPP model as of now.