Kerala Govt did not qualify in Thiruvananthapuram airport bidding process: Aviation Min

The Kerala government did not qualify in Thiruvananthapuram International airport's bidding process that was carried out in a transparent manner, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday after the state opposed to the Centre’s decision to lease out the airport to Adani Enterprises through public-private partnership (PPP) for 50 years.

Talking about the airport's 2019 privatisation process on Twitter, Puri said that the Kerala government quoted Rs 135 per passenger, whereas the winning bid quoted Rs 168 per passenger. Per-passenger fee was the criteria for the bidding process held in early 2019 for six airports, including Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. Adani Enterprises became the highest bidder for all six airports.

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Kerala Government loses bid

Before the bidding process, the Centre and the Kerala government had agreed that if the KSIDC's bid falls within the 10% range of the winning bid, it would be awarded the airport, the Aviation Minister said. However, the difference between Adani's bid and KSIDC's bid stood at 19.64% qualifying the former as the winner.

"Thus, despite the special provision of RoFR (right of first refusal) being given to the Kerala Government, they could not qualify in the international bidding process carried out in a transparent manner," Puri stated.

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State opposes Centre's move

The Kerala government on Thursday called an all-party meeting to discuss and oppose the Centre's decision to hand over of the management and operation of the Thiruvananthapuram airport to the Adani group. The leaders contended that the airport should be retained in the public sector. They also supported the view that the state government has sufficient experience in managing and operating two international airports at Kochi and Kannur. 

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In February 2019, Adani Enterprises won all six airports as it was the highest bidder. In July 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for leasing out three of them - Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow. Eight months later, Adani Enterprises signed the concessionaire agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on February 14, 2020, for operation, management and development of these three airports.

In June this year, the AAI gave three more months to the company to take over the management of these three airports due to the COVID-19 situation, pushing the deadline from August 12 to November 12.

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