)
Around 100 members of the Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU) have started the relay hunger protest against the Government's decision to privatise the Chennai Airport.
The Union representatives also said that the talks with the Labour Commissioner did not had any positive impact and they will intensify the agitation .
L George, regional secretary (metro) of the union said that around 100 people are in relay hunger protest and it will continue for the next four days and the Union will intensify its protest if the Government do not come with a positive response.
He added, the Labour Commissioner at New Delhi held talks with the Union and Management and the Union insisted that the tripartite committee recommendations must be implemented.
According to George, AAI took up the Rs 2,000 crore new terminal project based on the Government's assurance that Chennai and Kolkata terminal will not be privatised and it will be managed by the AAI.
Recently the two new terminals with a total investment of little over Rs 2,000 crore were concluded and privatising at this point of time would increase the user development fee and airport development fee for the customers.
It may be noted, Chennai and Kolkata are the only two airports located in metros that are still under the AAI and they accounts for a major share of the revenue earned by the public sector airport operator.
George also alleged that the Government and Task Force are blaming each other. “Government is saying it was the Task Force which is doing it (taking the privatisation initiative) and the Task Force is pointing fingers on the Government saying that they are doing it.”
The employees union says that the employees would lose job security if the facility is privatised, even as the government has assured that no jobs will be lost due to the privatisation.
It may be noted, on October 8, the AAI said that nine companies visited the Chennai Airport as a "Familiarization Trip" as part of the plans to have a public private partnership (PPP) for the operation, management and transfer of Chennai Airport. As reported, the companies visited the Airport amidst the protest by the AAEU.
The visit was as per the Request For Qualification (RFQ) for Operation, Management and Transfer of Chennai Airport through PPP floated by the AAI.
The parties/bidders who visited the Airport on Tuesday include, IL & FS Transportation Networks Limited, Essar Projects (India) Ltd, Essel Infraprojects Limited, CIAL, GVK, Fraport Saudi Arabia – KAIA, Abdullah Kirimli (Celebi Havacilik Holdings A S), GMR Airports Limited and Sahara Group.
"The bidders were accompanied by the Senior Officers of Airports Authority of India including the Key Infrastructure Development (KID) Corporate Head Quarters from New Delhi," added the authority.
Earlier, the AAI has launched a new domestic and international terminals with an investment of around Rs 2015 crore. The authority is expecting the period for pay back to be nearly 10 years.
The new domestic terminal has a capacity of 10 million, while for international it is 4 million. The combined area of the new terminals is around 1,33,462 sq mts. The handling capacity in domestic terminal has been expected to go up to 16 million and the international terminal to 7 million per annum, with the new terminals.
