Chennai: The Centre has proposed to operate Chennai and Kolkata airports under management contracts.
On Monday, a draft civil aviation policy-2014, uploaded on the ministry’s website stated that Chennai and Kolkata, among four other airports in the country, will be developed under the public private partnership mode.
Noting that the airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad were successfully developed in the PPP mode and are of international standard, the draft policy mentioned that it was the government’s objective to develop more airports in the PPP mode.
However when contacted, an AAI official clarified that Chennai and Kolkata airports would remain under the control of AAI. “The policy is only in its drafting stage now and is being circulated among various stakeholders for feedback. The policy is hoped to be finalised by January,” he said.
Emphasizing that AAI had made sizeable investments in the modernisation process of the Chennai airport, the official added that they are open to awarding contracts to private parties if that ensured an efficient management of the airport. “Certain services can be outsourced on a fixed fee basis,” he added.
Reacting to it, Air Passengers Association of India president D. Sudhakar Reddy said the idea of outsourcing select management services to private parties won’t work.
“Either the entire management contract is given away or the AAI authorities themselves strive to make Chennai a better airport,” he said.
In September last year, the then Congress-led UPA government proposed to privatise six major airports Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow through the public-private partnership mode. The state owned Airport Authority of India presently operates 46 domestic airports and 15 international airports.
Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju unveiled the draft policy, that said: “The AAI will be corporatised, followed by listing in stock exchanges, to improve efficiency and transparency. Pawan Hans will be listed with same goals.”
