The civil aviation ministry is planning to give 74 per cent equity to the private operator in case of privatisation of non-metro airports.
According to senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials, the private player will have control as far as terminal management is concerned.
The ministry wants AAI to retain 26 per cent equity which enables it to exercise a significant control over the functioning of the airports, officials said.
This is in marked variance with the view on metro airports where the ministry wants AAI to have a nominal stake of less than 10 per cent in the joint venture company.
According to officials, the ministry wants AAI to have a higher stake in these airports as regional and developmental issues are involved with the non-metro airports.
AAI will have direct control over security, air traffic control and a say in any major decision regarding the airports.
Civil aviation minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain had announced the privatisation of the 10 non-metro airports in August this year and said that the process would commence once the privatisation of the metro airports was underway.
The 10 airports on the roster are Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Kozhikode, Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur and Bodh Gaya.
The civil aviation ministry is likely to move the proposal for privatisation of the metro airports to the cabinet this month.
The proposal has already been approved by the Planning Commission, finance ministry and the law ministry.
The ministry is studying two models for the privatisation of the airports. One envisages a concession agreement format delineating the responsibilities of AAI and the private partner and the other creation of a separate joint venture company with AAI holding a minority stake.
