Bidders for operating Kolkata, Guwahati, Jaipur airports

Close on the heels of starting the process of transferring AAI-run Chennai and Lucknow airports to private parties, the government has now invited bidders for operating and managing the Kolkata, Guwahati and Jaipur airports.
As part of the process to allow private parties to pick up 100 per cent equity in operation and management of six airports through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, the Airports Authority of India issued the Requests for Qualification (RFQ) documents for the three airports, official sources said.
They said the RFQ for Ahmedabad airport, which is among the six airports to be privatised, would be issued shortly. The move follows privatisation of major revenue-earning airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The selected private parties would have to invest Rs 700 crore, Rs 600 crore and Rs 550 crore for carrying out a variety of works in both air and city sides of Kolkata, Guwahati and Jaipur airports respectively, the sources said.
The new Kolkata airport has been constructed at a cost of Rs 2,600 crore and the one at Chennai Rs 2,100 crore.
The short-list of concessionaires for Kolkata, Guwahati and Jaipur would be announced on November 25, 20 and 11 respectively, while the bid dates would be January 21, 14 and 7 for these three airports, the sources said.

The works to be carried out at the three airports would include construction or extension of runways, taxi tracks, isolation bays and aerobridges, modification of the old terminal buildings, resurfacing of the runways and local connectivity (like the metro in Kolkata).