After Months Of Protest, ‘Adani’ Tag Removed From Airport Name Boards

The tag ‘Adani airports’ has been removed from the name boards of Mangaluru International Airport (MIA).

After the Adani group took over handling of operations of the airport last year, there were sustained protests led by local social activists, for months.

Their wish has now been fulfilled as the original name boards have been restored, social activist Dilraj Alva told reporters.

Alva had taken up the issue with airport authorities contending that there was no provision to change the name, as per the agreement for operations and maintenance of the airport.

After the terms of agreement were revealed through an RTI reply, a legal notice was served in March this year to Airports Authority of India (AAI) and MIA director questioning the ‘Adani’ tag attached to the name boards.

The legal battle waged for some months before the social activists’ stand was vindicated. Changes have been made in MIA’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts also.

Adani Group had taken over Mangaluru, Lucknow and Ahmedabad airports from AAI late last year and Mumbai in July 2021.

Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport is among six airports to be privatized soon, the others being Varanasi, Amritsar, Raipur, Trichy and Indore, while Adani Group has been given two more months’ time to take over Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports.