Government to auction six more airports under PPP model: FM

The government will soon start auctioning of six more airports under public-private partnership and additional investment by private players in a total of 12 airports will be around ₹13,000 crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday (May 16).

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has already awarded three out of the six aerodromes that were bid out for operation and maintenance under public-private partnership (PPP).

The announcement about airports was made as part of the fourth tranche of stimulus measures to bolster the country’s economy that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

Sitharaman said annual revenue of the six airports would be around ₹1,000 crore while the current profit is about ₹540 crore per year. Besides, AAI would get a down payment of ₹2,300 crore.

Six more airports have been identified for bidding out and the bid process would commence immediately.

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These airports are those at Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy, according to an official.

“Additional investments by private players in 12 airports in the first and second rounds are expected to be around ₹13,000 crore,” Sitharaman said.

Last year, the government bid out six airports – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati – for operation, management and development through PPP model.

“Another six airports will be put out for the third round of bidding,” Sitharaman added.

State-owned AAI manages more than 135 airports and nearly 110 of them are operational.