No sooner than the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for leasing out Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvanathapuram airports of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) through a public-private partnership, the employees of these airports began to get irked with the government.
In Guwahati, the members of the Airport Employees’ Union (AEU) staged a demonstration against the move; the protest is expected to grow further in the coming days. The question arises whether the Centre’s move of privatising the airport would eventually have a negative or positive impact in Guwahati. Will the airport employees be able to stop Adani Group from taking over Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBI)?
Talking to G Plus, the regional secretary of Airport Employees’ Union (AEU), Pabitra Das said, “Along with the issue of the security of our employment we are also against the government’s decision of privatisation of the airport because of our concern for the public. The airport now belongs to the government and has been built with public money. We oppose handing it over to a private entity.”
Many employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) posted at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati staged a protest demonstration on the airport premises on August 20 as the government decided to lease out the airport to the Adani Group under the public private partnership (PPP) mode for a period of fifty years.
The employees, under a joint forum of unions and associations of AAI, staged the protest shouting slogans and waving flags.
The AEU is further planning to increase the level of the protests in the coming days as the central committee of the union in Delhi is planning a bigger protest against the move. The regional unit of the union in Guwahati is awaiting the decision of the central committee and accordingly the future course of action would be decided, said the regional secretary.
On being asked if the protest will have an impact on the services in the airport, the director of LGBI airport said, “The services will not be impacted as the employees were seen protesting only during lunch hours.” He further added that the Airport Authority is prepared to tackle any kind of situation and the normal services provided by the airport will not be affected.
There is a mixed response to the decision of privatisation as some are backing the government’s decision and some are opposing it. But the question remains whether it will negatively impact Guwahati or positively help the city to develop.
Founder and Principal of College of Aeronautical Engineering, BS Lahkar, talking to G Plus said, “There are both positive and negative impacts if the airport is privatised as like the Delhi airport the Guwahati airport will also become world class if it is in private hands.” Talking about the probable negative impacts, Lahkar said that there will be commercialisation of every aspect in the airport and the public will have to shell out more for everything. Private entities will be looking into the profit factor mainly and so everything will be commercialised.
In privatisation of airports, the state government plays a vital role. Till now the Kolkata airport is not privatised as the West Bengal government is not backing the Centre’s move on privatisation whereas Assam government has never gone against the Centre on any issue.
Adani Group had emerged as the highest bidder in 2019 to operate the Guwahati airport and accordingly, it is expected that the group will take over the airport on a PPP mode. But there are some court cases ongoing in the Gauhati High Court against the decision. Moreover, the AEU has vowed to protest against the privatisation move. So, time will tell if the AEU can stop Adani Group from taking over the airport.