The modernisation of Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports, through public-private partnership mode (PPP), has been delayed further. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to extend the last date for interested parties to put in bids to be considered for qualification to August 1.

This is the fourth successive delay with the original deadline of March 24 being extended to May 26 and then to July 1 and now to August 1.

Till late Monday evening there was no clear indication on why the deadline was extended. GMR Airports, the GVK Group, Tata Realty, Essel, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., Siemens Postal Parcel and Airport Logistics Pvt Ltd, International Business Development Flughafen, Zurich, Flemingo Duty Free Shop Pvt Ltd and Cochin International Airport have shown an interest in taking part in the modernisation process.

Employees of AAI, which runs and manages these airports, have however questioned the rationale for going in for the PPP mode to develop airports, especially when AAI has already invested large sums of money in Kolkata and Chennai airports. Deepak Shastri, Director, Chennai Airport, told BusinessLine that investments in Chennai airport have been put on hold due to the on-going privatisation plan.

When asked whether the delay in privatisation was affecting the terminal in Chennai, Shastri said “A lot. Both our terminals are running over capacity. When the privatisation idea was conceived in November 2013, the remaining two phases of development were to be taken up so that the infrastructure catches up with traffic growth.”

Shastri also pointed out that due to delay in privatisation the expansion at the airport had not happened and there was pressure on the existing terminals.

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