Central government plans to club unviable airports with six main airports for privatisation

Reportedly, the central government is planning to club unviable airports with six main airports in the next round of privatisation. The government is in the final stages of framing rules of privatising airports at Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Tiruchirappalli, Raipur, Indore and Varanasi. As per a proposal by an empowered group of secretaries, these airports will be clubbed with Barmer (Rajasthan), Jharsuguda (Odisha), Salem (Tamil Nadu), Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh) airports respectively. The move to club these unviable airports in the same geography with the main airports is aimed at improving regional infrastructure. Further, a cap of a maximum two airports is likely to be put on the bidders to avoid a monopoly.