Bangalore is likely to be dropped from the list of five airports approved by the Union Cabinet for corporatisation.
The move follows a government rethink on the mode of privatisation. A view has emerged that corporatising the airports may be very complex and require amendment of existing Acts and statutes.
Sources said that an alternative could be to give the Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai airports on a long-term lease to private parties. This could be done without changing the law. "Corporatisation could be one step to privatisation. There are other ways to achieve the same objective," the sources said.
The task force on infrastructure will be asked to study alternative routes for privatisation and recommend a specific method. It will also set the terms of reference for the legal and financial consultants. Bids will be invited on the basis of the task force's recommendations from the consultants. Altogether, 58 consultants have expressed interest in the advertisements issued late last year and early this year by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
Officials said the Bangalore airport has to be dropped from the list since the existing airport is a Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd facility and the new airport, for which a memorandum of understanding has been signed last month, is a greenfield venture. Hence, there is no existing facility which can be corporatised.
The sources said these issues would be first discussed by the task force on infrastructure before being referred to the Cabinet.
Earlier, AAI sources had said that the government would go full steam ahead with corporatisation. Corporatisation of the first airport was supposed to be completed within the year. However, the process may now take longer.
On January 20, the Cabinet granted in-principle approval to a proposal to corporatise the five listed airports.