Kerala CM Moves Resolution in Assembly On Decision to Put Trivandrum Airport Under PPP Model

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has moved a resolution in the State Assembly, urging the Central government to reconsider its decision to hand over operations & supervision of Trivandrum International Airport through Public-Private Partnership.

In the state assembly, the CM said "This decision to handover the operations to Adani enterprises is without considering the state government's request to hand-over the operations of the airport to special purpose vehicle (SPC) in which government has a major share."

He added that the state government has written letters and also met the PM in person as well as the civil aviation minister when he conveyed the interest of the state at various stages.

Vijayan added "State government has the experience of successfully running the Kochi and Kannur airport in a public-private partnership. But now a company without such experience is given the operations of the airport "

The State government has acquired 32.56 acres of land for the development of the airport. At present state government is in the process of acquiring 18 acres of land worth Rs 250 crore.

The Union Cabinet last week, approved a proposal for leasing out airports at Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) through public-private partnership (PPP) for a period of 50 years.

Adani Enterprises had won the rights to run six airports including these three, the other three being Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore through the PPP model after a competitive bidding process in February 2019.

At a press conference after a Cabinet meeting, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is not giving these airports permanently to the private operator. After running them for 50 years, the private operator would be handing over the airports back to the AAI.

Currently, all the aforementioned six airports are owned and managed by the government-run AAI. The minister said the AAI will receive Rs 1,070 crore as an upfront amount from the private operator for leasing the airports at Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and this fund will be used to develop airports in smaller cities.

Another benefit of leasing these airports is that passengers will get good services," Javadekar noted. 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 airports at Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow.

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.

Puri had on Tuesday said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation would place a proposal for further privatisation of airports before the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

With Inputs from PTI