The Airports Authority of India has amended the bidding documents for the right to operate and manage terminal buildings at Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports to allow global private players run the airports for 15 years against 10 years proposed previously, in a bid to make projects more attractive, a senior Civil Aviation Ministry official said.
“We have made some changes to the bidding document after we held pre-bid consultations with the stakeholders recently,” said Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman, Guruprasad Mohapatra.
Airport operators, including Vinci Airports Singapore, had asked the AAI to increase the contract period for Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports to “15-20 years”, according to documents reviewed by The Hindu .
Further, the new norms also permit a single private player to win bid for handling the terminal building for both the airports.
The AAI had floated a global request for proposal to hand over the operation and maintenance of its terminal building to private players earlier this year. The technical bidding for the two airports is expected to begin from September.
Till March 20, 11 private players, including four global firms, registered for the bid for operating and maintaining Ahmedabad airport and seven private companies, with two global players, registered for the Jaipur airport.
Some of the global players include Daa International, that operates Ireland’s state-owned airports, and Vinci Airports Singapore, Swiss-based Zurich Airport International and French firm Egis Airport Operation.
Among domestic players, GMR Airports, GVK Airports Services and Bengal Aerotropolis had shown interest in operating both the airports.
