Centre privatising airports to benefit a particular private player: Congress

Congress party on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government at the Centre is privatising airports by setting aside the recommendations of NITI Aayog, Ministry of Finance among others to benefit a particular private player.

"Modi government is ready to handover 25 airports to the private player in order to benefit it just in the manner it has benefitted Jio at the cost of MTNL and BSNL," said Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera at a press conference here.

"Out of 123 airports in the country, only 14 are running in profit. Out of these 14, five have been handed over to Adani Group. It s true that tender is given to the highest bidder but the recommendations of NITI Aayog and Ministry of Finance were set aside. Department of Economic Affairs has recommended not awarding more than two airports to one company," said Khera.

"For the next 50 years, the government will have no control over these five airports," he said.

"Airports were privatised during the UPA as well but the tender was not given by ignoring rules and recommendations," said Khera.

The government is planning to privatise around 20 to 25 airports having passenger traffic of 1 to 1.5 million annually, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said on Friday.

"The government is planning privatisation of more airports. There are around 20 to 25 airports in the country that can be privatised in the coming days. These airports having an annual traffic volume of around 1 to 1.5 million could be privatised," added Mohapatra.