Left set to limit airport reforms

Kolkata, Chennai may go off the revamp list.

The government may drop Kolkata and Chennai from the list of airports to be modernised in an attempt to appease the Left Front and employees' unions, which appear to have eaten the humble pie in calling off their agitation on Friday.

Instead of the privatisation model being followed for the airports in Delhi and Mumbai "" which triggered the agitation "" the government may adopt a model of public-private partnership for the other two airports. Another option is to ask the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to undertake the modernisation.

Kolkata and Chennai are part of the long list of airports "" which also has 35 non-metro ones "" that the government plans to modernise in phases.

"The AAI has the reserves, but these have to be used wisely. We can look at public-private partnership for developing the other two (metro) airports," said a civil aviation ministry official.

In addition, the government has assured the Left and the employees' unions that no matter the way airports are modernised in the future, AAI employees will not lose their jobs and there will be no change in employment conditions.

As part of the compromise formula, a tripartite committee, with representation from the civil aviation ministry, the government, the AAI and airport employees, will take key decisions regarding the status of AAI employees after handing over the Delhi and Mumbai airports to private companies.

This committee will also discuss the possibility of increasing the employee absorption ratio with private companies.

The government today issued letters of intent to consortia led by GMR and GVK, awarding them the contracts to modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports, respectively, in accordance with a decision of the Cabinet on February 1.

The Sterlite-Macquire combine, which was also in the fray, has protested against its exclusion from the financial bids, claiming that its offer was higher than GVK's. It has said in a letter to the members of an empowered group of ministers that the government, in choosing GVK for Mumbai, stands to lose Rs 2,000 crore in revenue share.

The Sterlite-led consortium has questioned why its bid was considered for Delhi but not Mumbai, adding that it is also exploring the legal option.

"We wish to place on record that our consortium has submitted a bid for the modernisation of the Mumbai airport, which is substantially higher at 43.04 per cent than that of the revenue share offer of the successful bidder," said the letter.

The GVK-South African airports combine bagged the contract for Mumbai as it emerged the top bidder among the four whose financial bids were opened on January 31. It offered to share 38.7 per cent revenue with the government.

Meanwhile, air passengers today walked into clean airport terminals. There were also people to handle luggage and baggage trolleys.

During the four-day strike, the terminals had begun to resemble and smell like garbage bins and there was no one to attend to basic functions.

According to AAI officials, employees today reported to work as usual. Scores of employees at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai airports were busy cleaning up the mess.

AAI employees had resumed work shortly after the strike was called off on Friday, following an assurance from the government on job security.