The Adani group has won the bid to operate for 50 years five out of six airports that were put for privatisation by the central government, a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said Monday. The Adanis were the highest bidder for the Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Jaipur airports, the official said, adding the bid for the Guwahati airport will be opened on Tuesday.
The AAI chose the winner on the basis of “per-passenger fee” offered by the bidders. The five airports would be handed over to the Adani group after completion of formalities, the AAI official said. The official said the bids put by the Adani group were “very aggressive” as compared to others. The AAI said in a press statement that, as per passenger fee, the Adani group put in a bid of Rs 177, Rs 174, Rs 171, Rs 168 and Rs 115 for airports at Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru, respectively. The per passenger fee would be paid by the Adani group to the AAI.
The GMR Airports Limited — which operates the Delhi and the Hyderabad airports — put in a bid of Rs 85, Rs 69, Rs 63, Rs 63 and Rs 18 for the five airports, as per AAI statement.
For the Ahmedabad and the Jaipur airports, the second highest bid was put jointly by the ‘National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Zurich Airport International Ag” at Rs 146 and Rs 155, respectively, according to the AAI statement.
