Jaipur-International-Airport

Jaipur airport to privatize soon, Adani group will handle it

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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the proposal of Airport Authority of India (AAI) to lease and privatize Jaipur airport. Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram were also decided to privatize along with Jaipur.

In a move to pursue economic reforms in the country, the privatization of these airports has been granted in the cabinet meeting under public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Many important decisions were taken in the cabinet and CCEA meeting under the leadership and vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the meeting, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports were decided to be rented under the PPP model. The Airport Authority of India has given in private hands for 50 years, after which they will be returned to the airport.

After the cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar addressed a press conference to announce several cabinet decisions. He said, “The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal for renting out Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports, of Airports Authority of India (AAI), through Public-Private Partnership.”

“It will be profitable to approve the proposal to lease these three airports to M/s Adani Enterprises Limited for 50 years. Operation, management and development will now be handed over to this company. The government is given rs 1,070 crore immediately. The airport authority of India will use this money to develop airports in smaller cities. With this, the functioning of these three airports will improve and the necessary investment in the public sector will come. Air travellers will get efficient and quality services. Also, it will help AAI in increasing revenue,” Javadekar added in a press briefing.

According to the information, The Airport Authority of India had conducted a global competitive tender for leasing the airports. M / s Adani Enterprises Limited bid the highest acquiring the rights.

In 2018, Adani Enterprises acquired the rights to operate six airports ‘Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati’ through the PPP model.

This February, after cabinet approval, Adani group signed an agreement with AAI to operate Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru airports. Now with the approval for the other remaining airports, Jaipur Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati, the privatization will start soon.

The privatization process will begin in all three airports by the end of this financial year. Rapid steps have also been started in this direction. Due to Covid-19, AAI gave Adani three more months in June this year to take over the management of these three airports Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow. This means that he has time until 12 November to manage them.

These airports were owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The AAI operates under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It owns and manages more than 100 airports across the country. More than 90 airports are running at a loss.