In a late night development, chairman of the state-run Airports Authority of India, V P Agarwal, was removed from his post apparently because of his "opposition" toprivatisation of more airports in the country, sources said.

Alok Sinha, who is currently joint secretary in the Aviation Ministry and handling the airports, has been given additional charge of the post, according to government orders.

Agarwal was resisting the privatisation of six more airports, including Kolkata and Chennai. But the government is in a hurry and wants the process to be completed before going into elections. For this reason, Agarwal had to lose his post, sources said here.

The government had in September last year decided to allow private parties to pick up 100 per cent equity stake in operation and management of the six airports - Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow - through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Incidentally, Agarwal's five-year term as AAI chairman had expired last December but he was granted an extension.

Even national airports unions are bitterly opposed to giving out government airports to corporate players, alleging that the move would reduce the already shrinking revenue of the AAI due to the privatisation of country's two busiest airports - Mumbai and Delhi.

The unions have also asked the government to hand over small airports in the country to private players for development, instead of giving away high density traffic airports.

A parliamentary panel had last year also opposed privatisation of government airports in the country.

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News