Govt to Put Six New Airports for Auction Under PPP Basis

As part of the several economic reforms being announced by the government in these difficult times, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the fourth tranche of the economic package today. This was about structural reforms along 8 major sectors spanning Coal, Minerals, Defence Production, Airspace Management, MRO, Power Distribution Companies in UTs, Space and Atomic Energy.

To help the Aviation sector, the Minister said that six new airports will be put up for auction under the second round of bidding. This process will be carried by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) in the coming months and will be done on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis. The government has said that this process is expected to take about two months of time.

The government also added that AAI has generated Rs 1000 crore from the first round of bidding and is expected to generate Rs 2,300 crore in form of down payments. In the first and second rounds of investments, AAI is expected to make about Rs 13,000 crore. Post this, six more airports will be added to the auction list for the third round of investment.

As part of the reforms regarding the Aviation Sector, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the reforms pertain to three broad categories including rationalisation of airspace, auctioning of new airports and making India an MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) hub for airplanes.

Source: News18