The Hindu Business Line : Indian, Air India merger by fiscal-end: Patel

MERGER COUNTDOWN: (From left) Mr Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation; Mr Vishwapati Trivedi, Chairman & MD, Indian; and Mr Jatindas, artist, at the launch of Indian's 2007 calendar in Mumbai on Friday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai , Dec. 22

The Union Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel, on Friday said the merger of Air India and Indian was on the right track, with the Committee of Secretaries having finalised its report on the merger process.

"The report will be taken up for discussion by the Group of Ministers in January, after which it will be put before the Cabinet. We hope to complete the merger by the end of the current fiscal," the Minister told press persons after releasing Indian's calendar for 2007.

Asked whether the Government was facing any hurdles in the merger of the two airlines, he said "these are not hurdles, but there are some issues involved that are bound to crop up in an exercise like this."

Public offering

Mr Patel agreed that a post-merger IPO made better logic, as there would be better valuation, indicating that the Government was toying with the idea of a public offering after the two airlines merged.

The Minister said he planned to hold a national conference on aviation, inviting all the Chief Ministers to participate. "I have been trying to convince the Chief Ministers that some taxes on ATF levied by the States should be rationalised in order to make aviation cheaper. This will help the respective States as it would encourage operators to provide better connectivity in those States," he said, adding that there should be a national consensus on the role of aviation in the Indian economy.

On development of non-metro airports, he said this was also in the right track with 10 of the 35 non-metro airports identified having flagged off the process. "We expect to complete the initial roll-out for all the 35 airports by 2007," he added. On the proposal for setting up a second airport at Navi Mumbai, Mr Patel said he had discussions with the Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh. He wanted the Chief Minister to come out with a firm proposal, with land availability, at the earliest. "The bidding process for the proposed airport should be completed by 2007, as Mumbai would certainly be requiring a second airport by 2012," he pointed out.

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