AAI receives bids for privatisation of six airports; Jaipur, Ahmedabad gets maximum interest

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has received 32 technical bids for privatisation of six AAI-owned and operated airports in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Mangalore and Guwahati. The 10 bidders include companies like GMR group and Adani Enterprises. Jaipur and Ahmedabad have received maximum seven bid each while Lucknow and Guwahati have received six bids each. Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram have got three bids each. AAI will open the financial bids on February 25. The winning bids will be announced on February. The other companies include Autostrade from Italy, UK based AMP Capital Investors, I Investments from Mauritius, Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), Sanna Enterprises and PNC Infrastructure.

The operating, management and developing rights for the six non-metro airports would be awarded to the bidder with the highest per-passenger fee for domestic travellers.

The six airports would be leased out for 50 years instead of the 30 years during the previous round, 12 years ago, when the AAI had opened the Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai airports for privatisation.

As of now, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin are the only private-run airports in the country.

(With inputs from PTI)