Kolkata, Chennai airports out of PPP mode for now: Officials

Kolkata and Chennai airports are out of the public-private partnership (PPP) mode for now even as the government only listed the ones at Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Guwahati for development through PPP during this financial year.
The decision to award these four out of six airports under PPP process for operation, management and development, was taken after a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired to finalise infrastructure targets for 2014-15, official sources said.
The government has been having a relook at the process of privatisation of six major airports started by the previous UPA dispensation.
However, the sources did not rule out the possibility of a supplementary list coming out, but said the decision to award more airports under PPP would be taken in the light of a new holistic policy on civil aviation sector being worked on.

The draft of this policy is likely to be put up for consultations with stakeholders by mid-October, the sources said.
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju has suggested fresh broad-based consultations between the Centre and states and with airport developers, airlines, passenger associations and travel operators before finalising the model concession agreement for construction and operation of airports through PPP.

The UPA-II government had early last year launched the PPP process for modernising six airports at Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
But the process could not be concluded due to reported difference of opinion between the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Planning Commission on the model concession agreement and issues like revenue sharing and the period of lease. The process was finally stalled after the general elections were announced.

While airlines have been complaining of exorbitant charges making some Indian airports the costliest in the world, the sources said the estimated cost of turning around an aircraft at a large airport operated by a private-led airport operator in India was about USD 6,000, compared to USD 2,300 at Singapore's Changi Airport, USD 2,800 in Hong Kong and USD 1,800 at Colombo.