The Maharashtra government has decided to take back five airports from Reliance Airport Development Private Limited (RADPL), a firm belonging to Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, for failing to make any progress in their development and expansion.
The Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited had appointed RADPL to develop and expand the airports at Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Yavatmal and Baramati in August, 2009 after the latter emerged as the highest bidder at Rs 63 crore.
There was a plan to start commercial services from these airports. The total land occupied by these five airports is 601 hectares.
"I have asked the officials of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation to take the possession of these lands. Negotiations in this regard will begin soon," Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said today, adding that the company appeared to be reluctant to develop the airports.
"The project did not move an inch even six years after the contract was awarded. We have undertaken another project in which we plan to launch commercial services from 21 airports. So, we need these airports back," he said.
The then Congress-NCP government had inked the deal with RADPL a week before the Assembly elections were announced.
The finance department had pegged the land price at Rs 305 crore while the revenue department had pointed out that government could not lease out land for more than 30 years. The lease in this case is 95 years.
BJP, then in opposition, had objected to the tender advertisement, saying it did not make 95-year lease offer clear, otherwise it would have attracted many more bidders.
Reliance Airport's business head Binu Varghese declined to comment on the development.
