NEW DELHI: A ministerial panel will meet soon to decide the further course of action on strategic disinvestment of Air India. The options include listing the national carrier to the stock market or calling off the sale.
The panel includes the Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
Sources said that government has also planned to make the Air India’s real estate properties as part of the strategic sale.
Sources claimed that government has also planned to include the properties of the national carrier into the strategic sale to attract the investors. They claimed that properties are located at prime locations in India and abroad.
These properties include villas in Hong Kong, Mauritius and Nairobi. While the villa at Hong Kong is over 2,700 sqft, the Mauritius property is about 3,100 sqft. Similarly, the property at Nairobi is spread over the area of one acre. Apart from this, the national carrier has several apartments in cities like London, Tokyo etc.
Air India has a similar massive non-commercial real estate in India. Some of these properties have been already put up for auction like some flats in South Mumbai.
There was a huge amount of real estate that was transferred to Air India from the erstwhile Indian Airlines when the two carriers merged into a single entity in 2007.
As part of efforts to revive the loss-making Air India, the government had kicked off the stake sale process and has issued a detailed preliminary information memorandum wherein it has proposed to sell 76 per cent stake and cede management control to private players, however, it failed to attract any potential player.
Meanwhile, RSS’ economic wing Swadeshi Jagran Manch has come out with an alternative disinvestment plan of the state-run carrier and has met the civil aviation minister on the issue.
AI assets
Hong Kong : 2,700 sqft
Mauritius: 3,100 sqft
Nairobi : 1 acre
Air India has apartments in London, Tokyo and other cities abroad
The national carrier also has properties in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities