Govt earmarks 25 airports for asset monetisation in next three years

The Civil Aviation Ministry stated in a reply in the Lok Sabha that 25 airports have been earmarked for asset monetisation from 2022-25.

“As per National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), 25 AAI airports have been earmarked for asset monetisation over the years 2022 to 2025 namely Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Calicut, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Chennai, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Hubli, Imphal, Agartala, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry,” stated Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh.

The ministry further added that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has identified Tiruchirappalli International Airport in Tamil Nadu to be run under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode among 13 airports.

The ministry added that AAI will remain the owner of the airports even if they are run under the PPP mode. "All these airports will revert to AAI once the concession period is over,” stated the ministry.

In an earlier reply, the ministry had stated that seven of the eight airports under the PPP model are managed by the Adani Group. "So far, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has leased out eight airports namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru for Operations, Management and Development under Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Out of these, seven airports viz. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru are managed by M/s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL)," Gen Singh said.

The Adani Group had forayed into the airport's sector in 2019. In February the company signed the concession agreement for three airports, followed by Mangaluru airport in October, and Lucknow and Ahmedabad airports in November.

Also read: 7 airports of total 8 under PPP run by Adani Enterprises: Govt