Govt to club unviable airports with main ones in next privatisation round

Facing criticism that privatising profit-making airports is saddling the AAI with economically unviable airports and fostering monopoly in the sector, the Centre is planning to rewrite policy

Facing criticism that the policy of privatising profit-making airports is saddling the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with economically unviable airports and fostering monopoly in the sector, the Centre is planning to rewrite how airports have been privatised in the country.

In the upcoming round of privatisation, unviable airports are likely to be clubbed with six main airports and a prospective bidder may be restricted to bid for two airports.

The government is in the final stages of framing rules of privatising airports at Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur, and Tiruchirappalli.

An Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS), chaired by the