Adani group wins bids to operate 5 airports for 50 yrs
Chosen on basis of ‘per-passenger fee’
New Delhi: The Adani group has won the bid to operate for 50 years five out of six airports that were put for privatisation by the central government, a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said Monday.
The Adanis were the highest bidder for the Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Jaipur airports, the official said, adding the bid for the Guwahati airport will be opened on Tuesday.
The AAI chose the winner on the basis of "per-passenger fee" offered by the bidders. The five airports would be handed over to the Adani group after completion of formalities, the AAI official said.
The official said the bids put by the Adani group were "very aggressive" as compared to others.
The AAI said in a press statement that, as per passenger fee, the Adani group put in a bid of Rs 177, Rs 174, Rs 171, Rs 168 and Rs 115 for airports at Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru, respectively.
The per passenger fee would be paid by the Adani group to the AAI.
The GMR Airports Limited -- which operates the Delhi and the Hyderabad airports -- put in a bid of Rs 85, Rs 69, Rs 63, Rs 63 and Rs 18 for the five airports, as per AAI statement.
A total of 32 technical bids were received from 10 companies to operate six airports that are currently under AAI's management.
In November last year, the government had cleared a proposal for managing six AAI-run airports on public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
The Ahmedabad and the Jaipur airports received seven bids each while the Lucknow and the Guwahati received six bids each. Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram received three bids each.
The move to manage the six airports on the PPP basis, according to the AAI, is part of an initiative to provide world-class infrastructure and services to stakeholders.
