No employee of B'lore, Hyderabad airports to lose job: Praful Patel

Kolkata, Feb 27(UNI) Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today assured that no employee would be retrenched even if Hyderabad and Bangalore airports were closed.

He, however, indicated that the Government was unlikely to go back on its decision to shut down the airports once the new ones were made operational.

'' No single employee of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports will lose job under the Airport Authority of India (AAI). We are not going to sacrifice anybody's job,'' he told reporters at a programme here.

Replying to questions, the Minister said it was a 'contractual obligation' that commercial operations in those two airports would have to 'cease' leaving scopes only for non-schedule operations like chartered flights.

'' It is a contractual obligation for signing agreement with the organisations for creating new airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Besides, the air traffic does not require two airports in a city to exist. The Government cannot sign an agreement and keep on changing its commitment,'' he said.

The Airports Authority Employees' Union (AAEU) had called for a strike yesterday in protest against the proposed closure of the two airports and other issues. They, however, deferred the agitation till March 10 following an assurance of the Minister to look into their demands.

It has been decided that the Ministry will look into these matters in detail and another round of discussion will be held with the union representatives in the near future, an official release said.

The Minister had informed Parliament that the existing airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore would be closed once the new airports were commissioned.

He said the two projects at Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were at various stages of completion and steps had been taken by the state governments for providing connectivity at Shamshad (Hyderabad) and Devenhalli (Bangalore).

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