The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday issued a Request For Qualification (RFQ) for selection of private bidders to operate and maintain Chennai and Lucknow airports on a revenue-sharing basis with the state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI) for a period of 30 years.
The RFQ was invited up to mid-October and the financial bids are likely to be received by mid-December this year.
The ministry said the RFQ for privatisation of four other airports -- Kolkata, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad -- are likely to be issued soon and the revenue-sharing model would be decided by the AAI after discussion with the qualified private bidders. As per the Inter-Ministerial Task Force recommendations for operation, management and development of select airports on public-private partnership (PPP) basis, six airports spread across Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai have already been modernised and expanded under the 11th Five-year plan by the AAI. The ministry said one private company or a consortium (group of entities) could get maximum two of six airports awarded by the airport authority. Also, they would not be eligible for award of more than one airport from Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad.