The privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports today crossed the final hurdle. The empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) unanimously cleared the transaction document, including the concessions agreement, that will be circulated among the bidders in the last week of July. Government sources said that after Attorney General Milon Banerjee ruled in favour of commercial leasing of the new airports, the GoM, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared the transaction documents. At the last inconclusive meeting of the GoM on June 14, Mukherjee had asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to seek the A-G’s views though the Solicitor General Goolam Vahanvati had ruled in favour of commercial leasing. The next step is preparation of the documents by international consultants followed by circulation among the bidders for comments. ‘‘The Law Ministry, Planning Commission, Civil Aviation Ministry and Commerce Ministry discussed threadbare the details of the proposed documents and were fully satisfied with the results,’’ said a minister who attended the GoM.The GoM is in favour of a model concession agreement that can be used for privatisation of airports in the future. The Civil Aviation Ministry has already prepared a tentative list of 25 airports and technical and financial feasibility studies have been completed for 10 of them. At the GoM meeting today, it was decided to give two weeks time to the bidders to respond and send detailed proposals after the fresh documents were prepared and circulated. The exercise is expected to be completed and bidders finalised by September. The bids for both airports would be handled simultaneously. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said once the documents were finalised and circulated, the eight consortia in the race would have to submit their financial and technical bids within the next two weeks. The bidders would subsequently be shortlisted within eight weeks of their submitting the papers. On the land to be leased for development of the city side of the airport, Patel said the development guidelines would be made clear in the document. In Delhi, it would be carried out in accordance with the city Masterplan. The minister said the A-G’s opinion had been sought on whether commercial activities could be allowed on the city side of the two airports, adding that the legal viewpoints had been considered while reframing the bid documents. There was no need to further amend the Airports Authority of India Act in this respect, he said. Only five per cent of the entire land to be leased would be given for activities like construction of hotels and shops, which related to globally-accepted passenger amenities. The commercial leasing of city side of the airport can be undertaken under the 2003 amendment of Airports Authority of India Act and Airport Infrastructure Policy, 1997.While 70 per cent of the land would have to be kept for development of the runways and other airport-related activities, 10 per cent would have to be for the green belt and the remaining for terminal buildings, inclusive of five per cent for commercial constructions. Leading Indian corporates and foreign investment and airport companies are in the fray for modernising the two airports. Major bidders include Reliance Airport Developers, Videocon, a consortium of telecom giant Bharti Enterprises Limited and Singapore’s Changi Airport Managers and Partners (Champs), Larsen and Toubro and Fraport-Gmr (which is developing Bangalore airport) and real estate firm DLF.
