“There is no economic logic behind the move to privatise Chennai airport,” said CPI’s Rajya Sabha member D. Raja.
Addressing employees of the Airports Authority of India who staged a protest at the airport on Monday, he said that shortcomings of the airport and complaints received could not be cited as reasons for privatising it.
“These are cheap arguments – the answer to these problems is not to privatise the airport. The construction companies [that built the airport] must be held responsible. New Delhi airport is run by a private player but wasn’t it flooded in the recent rains,” he asked. He said that he had written a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard in October and plans to raise the issue in Parliament as well. An AAI official, on condition of anonymity, said that lack of manpower at the airport was one of the reasons it faced so many complaints.
