Nagpur: The much anticipated call on giving over Nagpur airport to private hands is expected to be taken for final decision in New Year. Sources informed the decision will be out this month only.
The airport is currently being run by Mihan India Limited (MIL), a joint venture company of state government’s Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), and Airports Authority of India. In October this year, GMR had emerged as the highest bidder for taking over the airport operations as against the other contender GVK. The bids have to be approved by the state government as well as the MIL board. The bid has been referred to concerned agencies to evaluate the deal. A decision is expected in a month’s time, said a source in MADC.
The private companies had to bid on the ratio of revenue to be shared with MIL. The stakeholders will be doing their calculations to ascertain if it would be viable to accept the GMR deal at the rate it has offered, said a source. It has been learnt that GMR has offered to share less than 7% of its revenues earned from the Nagpur airport with MIL.
Under the deal, GMR will be pumping in over Rs1600 crore to create new facilities in the airport, to develop it as an international cargo and passenger hub. Meanwhile, Air Asia which had started its flights to Kolkata and Bangalore from Nagpur in March 2018 will be terminating its services this month. However, this is being compensated with Indigo starting flights in the same sector said a source. The exit by Air Asia will not have any impact in the airport revenues.
