Airport privatisation: Another scam in the making? The UPA government is trying to push through the second wave of airport privatisation before the elections and the controversial elements of this process threaten to harm the sector. The civil aviation ministry and the Planning Commission are trying to push through the second wave of airport privatisation in such a manner that favours companies that are already in the airport business rather than encouraging new players and competition. This is being done by introducing extra weightage in the technical evaluation for companies with experience in the SAARC region. India is the largest country in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)region and the obvious beneficiaries would be the private sector airport operators we already have - GVK, GMR, Cochin International Airport Ltd and Reliance Airport Developers. Of course, Cochin Airport Company is a Kerala government-driven venture that runs only one airport and Reliance runs only a clutch of small airports. Therefore, the big players to benefit from this rule are GVK and GMR. The bid to put them at an advantage contradicts the move by the Civil Aviation Ministry and Planning Commission to curtail monopoly by saying that no bidder would be allowed to take more than two of the six airports - Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Guwahati - that are on the block. Even out of these six, a single player cannot win more than one out of Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. This rule indicates that the Government does not want to give more than two airports to one player and does not want more than one big airport to go to a single company. The movers and shakers behind the privatisation seem to have ignored the fact that both GVK and GMR already have two large airports each. Both GMR and GVK are among the potential bidders and the number of airports in their bag could increase to four each if this round of privatisation goes through in the manner in which it has been designed. Mumbai and Bangalore airports are run by GVK while Delhi and Hyderabad are with GMR. All these are metro airports and Mumbai and Delhi are the top airports in the country. While restrictions are being imposed on new players, there is no such bar on GVK and GMR. Rather, they are being put at an advantage with the SAARC criteria.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 19:00:19 +0000
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