The government plans to award 11 airports, including those at Varanasi and Tirupati, to private players in five bundles under the public-private-partnership model.
Five major airports are to be bundled with six smaller airports.
The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), at its meeting held on August 4, gave in-principle nod for the civil aviation ministry’s proposal.
Under the proposal, the Amritsar and Kangra-Gaggal airports will be one bundle while Varanasi, Gaya and Kushinagar will be another. Airports at Bhubaneswar and Hubballi will be in one group, and Raipur and Aurangabad airports will be in another bundle.
ing impact across projects.
The total investment to be made by the concessionaires that take over the operations of these airports is estimated at Rs 8,622 crore.
The ministry has proposed providing a one-year joint management period involving existing employees of Airports Authority of India once the airports concerned are bid out to the private players.
“Further, the concessionaire would be required to retain 60 per cent AAI employees up to three years. The previous round of transaction provided for 1-year joint management period and 2-year deemed deputation period.
“Historical evidence suggests that such arrangement with the concessionaire has been acceptable to AAl employees,” the document said.
The 11 airports for the current round have been selected by a phased and data-driven approach by AAI, as per the minutes of the meeting.
“Initially, 12 major airports were assessed based on passenger traffic, land availability and commercial potential, financial performance, and airport-specific strengths and constraints, of which six were recommended for leasing.
