Nagpur airport must not be set up by JV: Union

'Govt had promised all airports would be developed by AAI'.

With the government signing an MoU to develop Nagpur airport as a cargo and passenger hub, employees union has protested the move to hand it over to a joint venture company.

They termed it a "gross violation" of an official assurance that all airports would be developed only by the state-owned Airports Authority of India.

In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, the AAI Employees Joint Forum said, a Tripartite Committee, set up by the government in February had "agreed that all the present metro/non-metro/major airports will be developed by AAI only, except city-side development of a few airports".

Forum Convener M K Ghoshal said that Patel had promised that the committee would look into issues and proposals relating to modernising airports by the AAI as also the employees.

The committee, comprising representatives of the ministry, AAI management and the forum, was established in the wake of the nationwide strike by AAI employees, which had led to considerable disruption in flight operations.

Maintaining that the Nagpur airport will be handed over to a joint venture, in which AAI will hold 49 per cent stake and the rest will be in the hands of Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC), he said the land and property will also be leased to the JV at Re 1 only as licence fee per annum for 30 years.

AAI, Ghoshal said, has already invested over Rs 50 crore for developing the Nagpur airport and described the decisions as "most unjustified and unfair", adding that this will lead the profit-making AAI to suffer major losses.

He said the Nagpur airport will be among a series of major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, to go out of AAI hands.