AAI extends submission date for RFQ for four airports

Airports Authority of India (AAI) today extended by two months the submission date for RFQ (Request for Qualification) for the operations, management and development of Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports.
The state-run airport operators earlier had March 26 as the last date for submitting the RFQ.
"We have extended the due date for RFQ from March 24 to May 26," AAI sources said here.
Sources, however, did not elaborate the reasons for extension of the timeline.
The AAI last year had invited Request For Qualification (RFQ) from domestic and overseas private firms to hand over the management, operation and development of Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports, in which it has already invested Rs 5,000 crore.

The extension in due date comes in the backdrop of AAI employees union vehement opposition to the further privatisation of government-owned airports.

AAI employees union had earlier given a strike call on March 11, which it deferred till further notice following the intervention from the chief labour commissioner.
The CLC has fixed March 26 as the next date of meeting between the union and the management.
Besides, alleging that the government was handing over its four airports to the corporate sector after investing Rs 5,000 crore tax-payers money, the union also apprehends large scale retrenchment of manpower once these four airports are given to the private players.

Private corporate including Tata and Adani groups and existing airport operators GMR and GVK groups besides some foreign players have shown interest in the these airports following the RFQ.
Meanwhile, government earlier in the day said that successful bidders for these airports should spend at least Rs 1,839 crore towards mandatory capital works at these locations.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said in Rajya Sabha that the government has initiated the process for undertaking operation, management and development of four airports through public private partnerships.
The RFQs inter alia indicate the mandatory capital works to be executed by the successful bidder in next 3-5 years would be Rs 492 crore for Chennai airport, Rs 375 crore (Kolkata), Rs 472 crore (Ahmedabad) and Jaipur (Rs 500 crore), Sharma said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.