New Delhi: The Central Government has advanced plans to lease out 11 state-run airports, including facilities at Varanasi and Tirupati, to private concessionaires under the public-private partnership model in five strategic bundles. The initiative, which pairs five major revenue-generating airports with six smaller regional facilities to enable cross-subsidization, received in-principle approval from the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur. The 50-year concessions represent an estimated private sector investment commitment of 8,622 crore rupees.
Under the proposed grouping structure, Amritsar is bundled with Kangra-Gaggal, while Varanasi is paired with Gaya and Kushinagar. Bhubaneswar is grouped with Hubballi, Raipur with Aurangabad, and Tiruchirappalli with Tirupati. To address market concentration concerns and prevent potential over-leveraging across the sector, the Ministry of Civil Aviation will institute a cap on the maximum number of bundles any single concessionaire can secure.
The framework incorporates safeguards for existing Airports Authority of India personnel, mandating a one-year joint management transition phase followed by a requirement for private operators to retain 60 percent of staff for up to three years. Selection of the 11 airports followed an evaluation of passenger volume, financial viability, land availability, and commercial potential to ensure operational sustainability across all bundled assets.
