New Delhi: The Union Cabinet approved Wednesday the proposal for leasing out airports at Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram through public-private partnership (PPP). Adani Enterprises had won the rights to run six airports – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati. Adani Enterprises had won the rights through the PPP model after a competitive bidding process in February 2019.
In July 2019, the Union Cabinet had approved the proposal for leasing out the other three airports – Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow – to Adani Enterprises.
At a press conference Wednesday, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved the proposal for leasing out Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram airports through the PPP model.
Currently, the aforementioned six airports are owned and managed by the government-run Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Eight months after the Cabinet approval, Adani Enterprises signed the concessionaire agreement February 14 with the AAI this year for operation, management and development of airports at Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow.
In June this year, the AAI gave three more months to the Ahmedabad-based company to take over the management of these three airports due to the COVID-19 situation. This means the deadline for takeover has been pushed from August 12 to November 12.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier said Tuesday that the ministry would place a proposal for ‘further’ privatisation of airports before the Union Cabinet, Wednesday.