The privatisation of the metropolitan airports was put on the backburner today with the Cabinet deferring a decision.
The civil aviation ministry had proposed the privatisation of the Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai airports by offering private bidders 95 per cent stake in the joint ventures, with the Airports Authority of India retaining 5 per cent. Ministry officials said a final decision would take six months.
According to the officials, the main issue pertained to the recovery of costs by the private operators on their investments.
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Unless landing and parking charges were increased (around Rs 1.5 lakh per landing for a Boeing 747), it would be difficult for operators to recover their costs, said an official.
Briefing mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said,