The government may take the long-term leasing of the four metro airports after amending the AAI Act.
The joint venture route proposed by the civil aviation ministry for involving the private sector in the country's four metro airports was not cleared by the Cabinet earlier this month.
The ministry of civil aviation has the option of taking the stuatory route and amending the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994 before going in for privitisation of the metro airports.
Since the parliamentary Standing Committee has made its recommendations available before Parliament, the ministry now has the scope for widening the scope for adopting the mode of involving the private sector, Planning Commission member, N K Singh said at a seminar in New Delhi on Friday.
The joint venture route was adopted to expedite the process and it bypassed amending the AAI Act, he said taking the stuatory route is the best option, Singh said.
Senior civil aviation ministry sources said that they will be considering the standing committee's recommnedations on the metro airport privatisation issue.
They added the ministry would anyway have to seek an amendment of the AAI act for the Bangalore and Hyderabad projects.
The ministry had proposals the creation of joint venture companies with Airports Authority of India holding 5 per cent stake and an FDI component of 74 per cent.
The Cabinet, however, asked the miinstry to rework the privitisation format along with the finance ministry within a month's time when it took up the issue earlier in January.
The parliamentary standing committee on transport , tourism and culture, which is considering the amendment of the AAI Act for the airport privatisation in its final report has criticised the ministry for adopting the joint venture route.
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