AAI effects reshuffle of airport directors

NEW DELHI, May 9: Virtually on the eve of his departure, Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) acting chief Ranjan Chatterjee, has effected a big reshuffle at the country’s major airports. Airport directors at Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta have all been replaced. An order to this effect was issued on May 6, signed by the member (personnel), S. Narula.

What has taken aviation circles by complete surprise is that this move comes when the government is about to appoint a new full-time chief of AAI. Indeed, the buzz at AAI is that the new chief is likely to be appointed within the next fortnight. While some politicians in the previous government had tried their level best to scuttle the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) panel for the AAI chief’s post, this was rejected and the panel is likely to be implemented soon. The top contender for the post is D.V. Gupta of Central Electronics Limited. According to the note, the airport director at Calcutta, R. Treasurywallah is to be transferred to Mumbai as theairport director there. P.S. Nair, the current head of the Mumbai airport is to come to Delhi as the executive director (commercial).

N.V. Sridhar, the executive director (commercial) will head the Delhi airport in place of H. Kumar who is retiring in August. Sudhir Kumar, currently executive director (cargo) is to be sent to Calcutta to become airport director there. Apart from the fact that it would be more appropriate to let the new AAI chief choose his own team, what is also surprising is the fact that several candidates do not appear qualified for the jobs being assigned to them. P.S. Nair, for example, is essentially a person from the cargo side of operations, and has served as airport director in Trivandrum and Mumbai earlier. Nair, however, is not being moved to cargo operations in Delhi which will now be vacant. Instead, he is being moved to commercial operations. Similarly, Sudhir Kumar whose experience has been in finance and cargo is being put in charge of airport operations, an area in which hehas no expertise.

The fact that some of the new airport directors have no experience of running airports will also mean that, if the PESB panel is implemented soon, the new incumbent will be put at an enormous disadvantage.