Government approves leasing out six airports on PPP basis

The government has given in-principle approval for leasing out the operations, management and development of six airports on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. The six airports – Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru – are currently managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). As per the plan, the government has decided to allow 100 per cent private participation with a 50-year lease contract for all the six airports besides allowing foreign investors to be the sole developers, unlike the Delhi and Mumbai airports which were developed by the GMR and GVK Groups in a joint venture with AAI. Further, to make the investments attractive for prospective bidders, the entire work of non-airside development for commercial purposes, such as building hotels or malls, will come under the purview of the selected bidders as this is essential to ensure project viability. Moreover, the government is also willing to offer VGF for PPP airport projects and is targeting the completion of the privatisation process by February 2019.