Gautam Adani’s infrastructure conglomerate Adani Group has entered the airports business by emerging the highest bidder for five of the six non-metro airports being privatised by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
Adani Enterprises Ltd bid aggressively to claim the top slot for the five airports, quoting a per-passenger (domestic) fee of Rs. 177 for the Ahmedabad airport, where the Group is based, Rs. 174 for Jaipur, Rs. 171 for Lucknow, Rs. 168 for Thiruvananthapuram and Rs. 115 for Mangaluru.
The bids for all the five airports — currently run by the Airports Authority of India — were opened on Monday. The AAI did not open the bid for the Guwahati airport in view of a stay granted by the Guwahati High Court against the privatisation process, at least two people briefed on the bid said, asking not to be named.
