The master concession agreement for modernisation of six airports including those in Chennai and Kolkata should be completed by the end of this fiscal year, senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation have said.

The master concession agreements will form the basis on which the private sector players will be invited to bid for modernisation of the six airports through a public-private partnership mode. Work on forming an MCA for the six airports started during the final year of the Manmohan Singh-led Government but >differences between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Planning Commission on a number of issues including what the revenue stream from these modernised airports should be and how much of the profits should be shared with the Government stalled the process.

While the Ministry was in favour of the Government getting revenue from both city side development and the airports, the Planning Commission pushed for a formula where the revenues from the hotels near the airports will not be shared with the Government.

Finally with General Elections being announced, >the Election Commission asked that the process be put on hold .

Now, with the Narendra Modi led Government having taken office, Ashok Lavasa, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, has chaired several meetings to draw up the master concession agreement.

The airports which are to be taken up are those in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Jaipur apart from those in Chennai and Kolkata.

The modernisation process began in September last year when the Government invited pre-qualification bids from private parties for managing these airports by issuing request for qualification (RFQs).

While the Government was hoping to complete the exercise before the model code of conduct before the general elections came into force, it was unable to move as even the RFQ stage was not reached. There was much interest for the project, with at least nine parties, including Fraport-Saudi Arabia, GMR Airports, IL&FS Transportation Network, Celebi Havacilk Holdings, GVK, Sahara, Cochin International Airport, Essar Projects and Essel Infraprojects keen on participating in the Chennai project.

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