Bidding for A'bad airport privatisation may face further delay.

The Ahmedabad airport privatisation continues to face delays. While the Madras High Court recently vacated a stay on the privatisation process, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is now awaiting an approval on a concessional agreement from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. According to AAI officials, only post such an approval will the authority be able to call for bids.

Earlier in January, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) employees' union had sought a stay on the privatisation process from the Madras HC which was later vacated.

'The stay was vacated by the Madras High Court, allowing us to go ahead with the privatisation process. However, while the RFQs are still coming in, we have prepared and sent a concessional agreement to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for approval. This is likely to take some time. We don't think the bidding process would begin anytime soon before the elections,' said a top AAI official. The airport privatisation process

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had put up six airports including the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) International Airport in Ahmedabad along with five other airports including Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur and Guwahati for privatisation through a public private partnership (PPP) mode and had invited request for qualification (RFQs) from interested private parties in mid January 2014.



BS