Pvt partners in airports to be named by July

The government on Tuesday said the private partners of the Airports Authority of India for the restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports were likely to be finalised by July or August.

"Nine private partners have already been given 12 weeks time to submit their technical and financial bids and based on their bids we expect to take a final decision by July or August this year," civil aviation secretary Ajay Prasad said on the sidelines of the Madhya Pradesh civil aviation conclave organised by CII in New Delhi.

Prasad also said AAI would borrow from the markets to fund airport expansion and upgradation programmes.

Airports: Bigger role for pvt operator

"We have already started the process to raise funds through debt," he said, without disclosing the amount to be raised. Ruling out going to overseas market to raise the funds, he said government would approach the domestic market for the purpose," Prasad said.

He said the exact time and the amount to be raised would be determined by the report of the study conducted on 25-30 airports across the country to find the traffic projections, aeronautical expansions and city-side development of each airport.

"By April 30, we expect reports on 10 airports to be available," he added.