The Rs 16 question: How Kerala lost Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani

While Adani's bid was almost thrice as much as GMR's, the Kerala govt's KSIDC would still have won the airport if it had quoted Rs 16 more. Sai Manish explains how

Of the six airports bagged by the Adani group, the most controversial has been the Thiruvananthapuram airport, with its lease being challenged in courts by the Kerala government. It now emerges that the Kerala government lost out to the Adani group while bidding for the airport by just Rs 16 per passenger.

Government data show that there were three bidders for the Thiruvananthapuram airport: Adani Enterprises, the state government’s Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and GMR Airports. None except GMR, which operates the Delhi airport, had any experience in running airports. Adani’s winning bid — the amount it would pay