AI, IA divestment to take off soon

Similarly, divestment plans of Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited PHHL had been approved by the ministry and forwarded to the cabinet, he said. The process of privatisation of the Hotel Corporation of India, an AI subsidiary, had been initiated with advertisements put out for appointment of consultants, while divestment of ITDC was 8220;on the anvil and a note has been sent to thecabinet8221;.

On IA, Kumar said the exact details of divestment proposal would be finalised shortly. While 11 per cent stock option is likely to be given to the employees, 40 per cent would be offered to the financial institutions.

On corporatisation of airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, the minister said as many as 54 respondents had applied to the tenders for finalising legal and financial consultants for this purpose and a decision to appoint them would be taken quot;shortlyquot;.

Kumar said Airports Authority of India AAI and Karnataka State Industrial Development Corporation KSIDC had recently signed a MoU for 13 per cent stake each for the Bangalore International Airport, while 74 per cent stake had been offered to foreign partners for which global tenders would be issued shortly.

A techno-economic feasibility report on expansion of Hyderabad Airport was quot;expected anytimequot; and a decision on it would be taken soon after, he said. Kumar said he had held talks with Gujarat Chief Minister onextension of Ahmedabad runway for which foreign participation might be invited. Likewise Punjab Government would also sign a MoU on extension of runway for Amritsar airport shortly, he added.

The minister said several other projects would be initiated within the next few weeks, starting with inauguration of Kochi International Airport in May-end, domestic terminal at Hyderabad, new terminal building at Silchar and Patna, night-landing facilities in Hubli, extension of runways in Jabalpur and Vijaywada.

Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry is preparing a blueprint for disinvestment in Indian Airlines which envisages offloading of 40 per cent equity to financial institutions and 11 per cent to the employees of the company.

He said while the previous governments have been talking about privatisation of Air-India, there was no decision on the disinvestment of equity in IA until June last year. 8220;We took the landmark decision on IA8217;s disinvestment plan and decided to offload 51 per cent,8221; he added. Thestate-owned domestic airline has an equity capital of over Rs 105 crore.

Since then the talks were on with the trade unions and management. Finally it was the company which took the decision on how to go for the disinvetment, he added. The national domestic carrier has around 31,000 employees which include over 2000 members of the pilot training school. The airline has fulfilled the condition imposed by the Kelkar Committee for privatisation, said a senior official of IA.

The committee had suggested that disinvestment will be viable only if the airline becomes a profit generating company, he said, adding that IA has been making profit for the past two years.

The airline had made a Rs 47 crore profit in 1997-98 after eight years. The profit, however came down to around Rs 10 crore during 1998-99.

The airline has a good growth potential and employees have faith in the company, he said, adding that employees will be glad to take the stock option.

Apart from 53 domestic destinations, the airline alsooperates on 17 international routes with a fleet size of 56 aircraft. Its fleet includes 10 Airbus 300, 30 Airbus 320, 12 Boeing 737 and three Dornier.