As part of the Rs 2.5 lakh crore asset monetisation plan, the Central government is aiming to sell its residual stake in four airports. The sale of Airport Authority of India's remaining stake in the four airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, as well as identification of 13 more airports for privatisation, has been planned for the next fiscal.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation will take approvals for divestment of equity stake of the AAI in the joint ventures running Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.
For the 13 AAI airports identified for privatisation, the possibility of bundling of profitable and non-profitable airports will be looked at to make more attractive packages.
In the first round of airports' privatisation under the Narendra Modi government, the Adani Group bagged contracts for six airports - Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati - last year.
Adani Enterprises in January had signed the concession agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for operating and developing the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports.
In a regulatory filing, the company said that the concession period is 50 years from the commercial operation date.
"Adani Jaipur International Airport Ltd, Adani Guwahati International Airport and Adani Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, wholly-owned subsidiaries of the company have signed the concession agreement on January 19, 2021 with Airports Authority of India for the operations, management and development of Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports respectively," it said.
Meanwhile, to further enhance regional air connectivity, the Centre on Sunday invited bids for the 4.1 round of the RCS-Udan scheme.
Accordingly, the 'Bid Document' has been uploaded on the Central Procurement portal of the National Informatics Centre inviting the bids from interested airlines.
The process is expected to be completed by six weeks.
In a statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said that some operational flexibilities are extended to Airlines under the Udan 4.1 to ensure suitable operation models to connect smaller cities or airstrips.
Besides, new routes are proposed under 'Sagaramala Seaplane Services'.