Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Oct 21: The Mangaluru International Airport will be run by the Adani Group in public private partnership (PPP) model for the next 50 years. The firm led by billionaire Gautam Adani won bids to operate six airports in February this year. Apart from Mangaluru, the firm will run Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), Ahmadabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram.
The Ahmadabad based conglomerate is contemplating to invest Rs 18,000 crore of which Rs 10,000 crore will go in attaining a major stake in MIAL. The remaining Rs 8,000 crore will be used to develop Mangaluru, Ahmadabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram airports.
However in Thiruvananthapuram, the firm is facing challenges as Kerala government filed a petition in the high court, saying it will not allow a private company to take over the airport.
Airports Authority of India had opted for a new model of revenue generation from these six airports’ prospective bidders. “The concessionaire shall pay to the authority, on a monthly basis, a fee (the ‘per-passenger fee’ or PPF) in respect of each passenger (both domestic and international) handled at the airport,” according to the request for proposal document for these six airports. Adani’s PPF was the highest for all the six airports. It was Rs 177 for Ahmadabad, Rs 171 for Lucknow, Rs 115 for Mangaluru, Rs 174 for Jaipur, Rs 168 for Thiruvananthapuram and Rs 160 for Guwahati.
After winning the bid, Adani Group released a statement on February 26 this year that it “would be aiming to scale up the infrastructure to bring these facilities on a par with global standards”. As per the statement, the Adani Group will be “responsible for operations and management of the existing airport assets as well as for designing, engineering, financing, construction and development of the additional air-side, terminal, city-side and land-side infrastructure for the airport and the operation and management thereof in accordance with the concession agreement and applicable laws under the PPP lease terms."