Workers kept out of airports upgrade

The government will not consider the plan submitted by employees of the Airports Authority of India to modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports while evaluating the bids submitted yesterday by the six private sector consortiums.

The government has taken this decision as it feels that the proposal of the employees union does not meet the conditions to qualify as a bid.

AAI employees had submitted their plan in July last year as an alternative to the government's model to modernise and privatise the airports in the two cities. The employees union wanted their proposal to be considered as a bid.

The employee's plan does not qualify as a bid as it does not meet the condition of having an airport partner in the venture. Besides, the bidder has to be a company with a minimum equity base of Rs 250 crore, and a union is not a company.

"It is not a bid. It does not qualify the conditions of treating it as a bid," said a civil aviation ministry official. The government will go ahead with only the evaluation of proposals of the six private consortiums.

Five consortiums - GMR-Fraport, Reliance-ASA (a Mexican airport operator), DS Construction-Munich Airport, Sterlite-Macquire Bank-Airport de Paris, and Essel group (Zee)-TAV (of Turkey) - had bid for both Delhi and Mumbai airports, while GVK-South African Airport Operator had bid for Mumbai alone.

As per the plan put forward by the AAI Employees Joint Forum, the modernisation of the two airports will require investments of about Rs 3,900 crore, which will be invested over 48 months.

AAI employees have proposed that since AAI has an in-house expertise to build and operate airports, the modernisation and upgrading of both the airports should be undertaken by AAI itself, instead of privatising the two airports. The employees' plan also proposes to raise funds from financial institutions.

The plan has also got the political backing of the Left. AAI employees say AAI has built airports in various other countries and in India.

Meanwhile, AAI employees today held demonstration outside Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, the headquarters of civil aviation ministry, to press for canceling the privatisation programme.

The government has been under pressure to jettison the programme. Sources also said certain quarters of the government has proposed redrafting tender documents, as two of the bidders backed out of the process pointing out tough bidding conditions.

Various AAI employee unions are considering a strike across the 127 airports in the country on September 29, which will lead to a disruption of air services.

The move is meant to protest against the government's privatisation plan. Employee unions have also given a letter to this effect to AAI chairman K Ramalingam.