After TN, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand seek share in revenue when airports are privatised

Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have come out in support of Tamil Nadus stance that whenever the Central government privatises an airport in a state, the state government should get a share in the revenue.

In a policy note issued earlier this month, Tamil Nadu said that if the state government acquires and transfers land to the Centre-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) free of cost, and if the AAI or the Centre transfers that land to a third party, the value realised or revenue accrued thereby must be proportionately shared with the state government “reflecting the huge investment in land being made by the state government”.

The AAIs board had in September last year gave the approval to privatise 13 airports, including Trichy in Tamil Nadu and Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Also read: Airport privatisation: TN plans comprehensive policy for land compensation

T S Singhdeo, Chhattisgarhs Minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, Health and Family Welfare and Commercial Tax, said land is a state resource and when the state and the central government come together for developing a project, which is supposed to be an earning project, the state governments capital is present as a shareholder in terms of the land.  “So long as it is in the government sector, things are moving in a particular way, the government of India would be making some revenue and there would be something spilling over to the state government and there would be benefit to the public, so that is fine,” he told

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