Air India selling its cash cow

Air India’s iconic 23-storey building at Nariman Point may change hands as part of the asset monetisation plan to raise funds for the cash strapped national carrier.

The proposal to sell the building to State-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust also comes on the heels of the Air India strategic disinvestment failing to take off.

With annual earnings in corporate rent of Rs 100 crore, the building has virtually kept the national carrier afloat. The amount is nearly half of the total monthly salary bill of the flag carrier’s 21,000 employees, says a media report.

Air India shifted its headquarters from the building to Delhi five years ago. The airline had retained the first three floors, along with the 21st, 22nd and 23rd floors. All other floors have been leased out for the last five years, except for the ground floor which has been vacant since January this year, when the Bharatiya Mahila Bank moved out, media reports add.

The building happens to be India's first structure with an escalator.

Official sources told PTI that the proposal has received in-principle approval from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which an inter-ministerial panel has

been constituted to work out the modalities.

The name of the building may not change after sale to JNPT.

JNPT at Navi Mumbai is India's biggest container port. It handles around 55 per cent of the container cargo in the country and has annual profit worth Rs 1,300 crore.