Govt Eyes Rs 900 Crore By Selling Bhubaneswar Airport; Check Details Here

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar is among the six airports identified by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for monetisation through brownfield PPP models in the current fiscal.

The airport is expected to generate Rs 900 crore.

The other five airports are Amritsar, Varanasi, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.

“To ensure commensurate development of non-profitable airports along with the profitable airports with the help of private sector investment and participation, pairing /clubbing of smaller airports with each of the six bigger airports and leasing out as a package is being explored,” the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) document said.

The Centre is looking to monetise 25 AAI-managed airports over the next four years, which could bring in investments worth Rs 20,782 crore during 2022-25.

Of this, Rs. 10,000 crore of monetisation value has been tentatively considered on account of divestment of AAI stake in private JV airports. This includes the private sector operated airports in Mumbai (26 per cent stake), Delhi (26 per cent stake), Hyderabad (13 per cent stake), and Bangalore (13 per cent stake).

The total airport assets for monetisation account for 18 per cent of the overall airport assets under management of the AAI.

“The same has been phased out equally over FY22 and FY23. It may be noted that the actual realisation from AAI stake sale will depend on multiple factors such as transaction timing, market conditions, investor appetite and transaction terms,” it said.

The government is planning to monetise smaller airports like Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur in the current fiscal and the bigger ones like Chennai and Vadodara in 2023-24 fiscal. Calicut, Coimbatore, Madurai, Jodhpur are among the eight airports listed for monetisation in 2022-23 financial year and Dehradun, Agartala and Udaipur in the last phase during 2024-25.

“Airport monetisation through brownfield PPP models has been boosted in India by the success stories of asset monetisation of four airports Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. This is primarily in terms of improved user experience and increase in value for all stakeholders,” the document added.

The government has identified 13 sectors, including airports, which could monetise their brownfield infrastructure assets.