13 airports are operated by private sector, Adani quoted highest bid, says MoS VK Singh

New Delhi [India], November 29 (ANI): Airports Authority of India (AAI) has received an overwhelming response from the private sector during the competitive bidding process and Adani Enterprises Limited quoted the highest bid for all the six airports, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr VK Singh on Monday.
In Rajya Sabha today, the minister was asked about the number of airports given for operation to private sector companies in the country.
"At present, there are a total of 13 companies in the country which are being operated by the private sector under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) modal. Out of these 13, eight airports belong to (AAI) viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and the remaining five belong to the respective State Governments, that is, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Kannur and Durgapur," Singh said.
He informed that AAI has leased out eight airports to the Public-Private Partnership for operation, management and development of these airports on a long term lease basis.
"The Concessionaires have been selected through the competitive bidding process and by evaluating the technical and financial capacity of the bidders. AAI received revenues from the PPP Partners in the form of Revenue share at Delhi and Mumbai and Per Passenger Fee (PPF) at other six airports throughout the concession period. AAI remains the owner of these airports and all these airports will come back to AAI once the Concession Period is over, he added.
Further, he said that AAI received an overwhelming response from the private sector during the competitive bidding process.
"During the bid process undertaken in 2018 for six airports namely, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports, AAI had received a total of 32 bids. And Adani Enterprises Limited quoted the highest bid for all the six airports. The airports have been leased to them. Post lease period all airports will revert to AAI (GoI) at zero cost with all infrastructure set up by concessionaire during the lease period," the minister said. (ANI)