Team News Riveting
The airport privatisation policy initiated by the Narendra Modi government in 2019 would fetch more money to the treasury as compared to the previous process.
In the earlier privatisation process adopted for the Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kochi airports, it was through the bidding. Under the new policy executed by the present government, the winning bid would be based on the highest per passenger fee payable to the government.
This was a different methodology as compared to the previous policy where a portion of the total revenue was shared. As such the revenue realised to the exchequer had been less.
In 2019, the Narendra Modi government initiated the privatisation process for six airports namely Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Guwahati and Lucknow. The airports had rapid growing traffic and profitable operations.
Many big wings including GMR, PNC Infra, AMP Capital, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), Zurich Airports, Kerala State Industrial Development Cooperation (KSIDC), Cochin Airport were in the fray. Of the 32 bids received, 10 were shortlisted.
But when the bids were opened, the authorities were elated to see the price. Adani’s bids were not only highest but had a big margin as compared to the nearest bigger. Adani offered a per passenger fee to the government which for certain airports was 155 per cent higher than that of the nearest competitor.
For the Trivandrum International airport where the Kerala government created much hullabaloo, Adani quoted Rs 168 per passenger as against Kerala state industrial development corporation’s Rs 135 and GMR’s Rs 63.
The Mangalore airport deal saw a huge margin among the bidders. While Adani bagged the contract by quoting a price of Rs 115, its nearest bidder Cochin International airport had offered a price of just Rs 45 per passenger.
Similarly, for the Ahmedabad airport, Adani offered Rs 177 while AMP capital quoted Rs 127 per passenger.
