New Delhi, April 4
The government today signed significant agreements with two private consortia headed by Hyderabad-based firms GVK and GMR, paving the way for modernising of the airports in Mumbai and Delhi at a cost of $1.2 billion each.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) signed the operation management and development agreements (OMDA) with the GMR Fraport group and GVK-South African Airports Company group. The two private consortia had won the airport modernisation contracts in January after an elaborate bidding process.
The government bid to hand over the two airports to private developers had invited major protests from the AAI staff supported by Left parties.
“The shareholders agreement and OMDA has now been signed and it’s the duty of the private participants now to take the venture further,” said Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who was also present during the signing of the agreements.
The agreement would bind the shareholders for 30 years during which they would jointly develop, maintain and operate the two airports. The two consortia are expected to complete the airports within 36 months once the facilities are transferred to them. The transfer is expected to happen within the next few months, sources in the AAI said.
While the government will have 26 per cent holding in the two new ventures, the GMR and GVK-led consortia will hold a 74 per cent stake each.
The CPM today warned the Congress-led UPA government of serious consequences in going ahead with the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports and dismissed the modernisation plea as “not only a mockery but a breach of agreement” with employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“Making a mockery of transparency, the signing of the agreements have taken place at a time when charges of irregularities are still under judicial scrutiny. Further, the act of signing
the documents is a violation of the government’s commitment to the employees of the AAI that all issues, including the modernisation of airports will be discussed at a government-AAI-employee tripartite committee. This act of the government ahead of such a discussion is a clear breach of that agreement,” the CPM said in a statement here.The dominant Left party maintained that “the government alone will be held responsible for the consequences of the course that it has adopted.”
While disapproving this action, the CPM Politburo said this was in “gross violation of the Common Minimum Programme. The CMP explicitly states that profit-making companies will not be privatised and all privatisation will be considered on a transparent and consultative case-by-case basis,” the statement added.
