Adani was given six airports despite the Finance Department not

-The Policy Commission also protested

- Also got the second largest Mumbai airport in the country

New Delhi Dated 15th January 2021 Friday

The Adani Group also acquired the country's second largest Mumbai airport. The Airports Authority of India had on January 12 given the green signal to hand over Mumbai Airport to Adani.

The Adani Group had bid in 2019. At the time, the policy commission and the finance ministry had explicitly opposed giving any company six airports at a time. But despite the opposition of the two, Adani was given six airports.

Narendra Modi's NDA government had invited bids for Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports under its largest privatization program. The Centre's Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee discussed the proposal with the Ministry of Civil Aviation on December 11, 2018.

A note sent by the finance ministry on the occasion made it clear that six airports are highly capital intensive. Assigning six airports to the same company is not practical. No single company should be given more than two airports. The finance ministry had approached the presidents of Mumbai and Delhi airports on the issue. GMR was the most suitable bidder on the issue but did not give them both airports. Like the finance ministry, the policy commission also expressed concern that a company should not be given six airports. The policy commission also said that the memo of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee is against government policy. A bidder who does not have the technical capacity cannot provide a service like government commitment.

The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee, chaired by Finance Secretary SC Garg, said it was decided when previous experiences would not be used as a basis for bidding. Adani signed the concession agreement at Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow airports a year after winning the bid. The Adani group outperformed MGR, Kochi International and Zurich Airport in bidding. That is why Adani was given the management of six airports for fifty years.

Adani Group has today become the largest private developer with six airports. About 80 million people crossed these six airports last year. These airports handle 34.10 per cent of the country's domestic traffic.