GUWAHATI: With privatization of Guwahati Airport its iconic name Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (LGBI) International Airport comes under threat.
One of India’s leading corporate house, Adani group has won the bids for operation of six airports in India including LGBI.
Days after winning the bid Adani group floated a subsidiary company named Adani Guwahati International Airport Limited under the banner it will carry out the operations and maintenance and development of LGBI airport.
In the past when the government has handed over its airports to private players like GVK and GMR the airports historic name has been relegated to background and the private players dominated over them.
For instance, Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja International Airport have been promoted more as GMR and GVK airports than by their iconic name.
Now whether the Guwahati’s LGBI airport will meet the same fate or the private players will maintain its historic name is the moot question.
“There is a tendency among private players to promote its own name after it takes over the airport operation. Being the greater partner in the project it promotes its own interest. And the first casualty is the name. Look at the case of Delhi and Mumbai,they are now known as GMR or GVK airports,” an aviation expert said.
It may be mentioned here that the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has conceded in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, that the “prescribed procedure (of) public consultation or consultation with the state governments (which) are mandatory for leasing out AAI airports through (the) PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode” were not adhered to.
“In Kerela state government has objected in handing over of airport to the private party, we don’t have any information about Guwahati. They will certainly do it. There is a already a case pending in the Gauhati high court against the government’s move,” said an Airports Authorty Employees Union official.
AAI was constituted by an Act of Parliament in April 1995, by merging the erstwhile National Airports Authority of India and the International Airports Authority of India.
According to the AAI’s website, its responsibilities include “creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure both on the ground and air space in the country.”
The website announces that the AAI manages 18 international airports, seven Customs airports, 78 domestic airports and 26 civil enclaves at defence airfields across the country.
In 2017-18, the AAI earned a profit of Rs 2,801.6 crore and held Rs 14,201.1 crore as reserves.
Airport privatisation started in India in September 2003 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the prime minister approved a proposal to upgrade the country’s two largest airports, at Delhi and Mumbai, in the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
The government decided at that time that the private partner would be selected through an open and transparent competitive bidding process, and that the winning company would hold 74% stake in the joint venture (JV) company (with the AAI holding the remaining 26%) that would be responsible for executing the upgradation and development programme for the two airports.
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