Airport privatisation a scam in name of PPP model, Centre favouring Adani Group: Congress

New Delhi, Sep 15: Congress on Tuesday in Parliament attacked the Centre and said the government is running a scam in the name of developing airports in a PPP model.

Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal said, "Adani Group has won bids to operate and develop 6 airports. There's clear violation of norms in giving airports to a single private entity. The government ignored advice of some of its own ministries and departments. Changes in the norms were enabled for Adani Group to win all 6 bids."

The Centre-run AAI owns and manages more than 100 airports across India, including the aforementioned six that have been privatised.

In February 2019, Adani Enterprises was declared the winner for all six airports as it was the highest bidder. In July 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for leasing out three of them - Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow - to the Ahmedabad-based company.

Eight months after the Cabinet approval, Adani Enterprises signed the concessionaire agreement with the AAI on February 14 this year for operation, management and development of these three airports.

In June this year, the AAI gave three more months to the Ahmedabad-based company to take over the management of these three airports due to the COVID-19 situation. This means the deadline for takeover has been pushed from August 12 to November 12.