Bhubaneswar: The Minister of State for Civil Aviation, VK Singh, told Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the Center has agreed to Leasing International Airport Biju Patnaik (BPIA) for its operations, management and development through the Public-Private-Private-Partnership (PPP)) mode.
Replying to the question by members of the Sujeet Kumar Hospital, the minister said the Indian Authority Airport (AAI) of the council at the 190 meeting held on September 5, 2019 has approved the six airports rental, Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Amritsar Punjab, Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Trichy in Tamil Nadu for managing operations and their development through PPP mode.
“In 2006, AAI has rented Delhi airport in the Union Delhi area and Mumbai airport in Maharashtra.
In 2018-19, six airports were again like Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Mangaluru in Karnataka was awarded under PPP by AAI.
“Singh said the Greenfield airport policy was approved in 2018 to open the way for the development of the airport both by the government or private entity or through PPP mode.
The 2016 National Civil Aviation Policy also emphasizes the airport development through the PPP route, he added.
The policy states that the Ministry of Civil Aviation will continue to encourage the development of the airport by the state government or the private sector or in PPP mode.
Thus, it has become a central policy to call for investment from the private sector in the field of infrastructure, including flights.
This center has provided special emphasis on airport development through personal participation, reading ministerial replies.
In October 2013, the Union Cabinet had given its approval to declare Bhubaneswar airport as an international airport.