Coimbatore Airport added in second round of privatisation?
Coimbatore: News that Coimbatore International Airport has been added in the second round of privatisation has made Industrialists happy. They said that they will wholeheartedly welcome the movie once it is officially declared and feel that the issues witnessed at present including airport expansion and lack of infrastructure development will be solved.
In February 2019, the Ministry of Civil Aviation cleared the public-private partnership model for six airports, namely Lucknow,Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati in the first round of privatisation. It was also said that more airports would be privatised in the coming years. May this year, the proposal for privatisation of another six airports has been approved. Previously, the list did not feature Coimbatore Airport, but sources from the aviation industry say that recently Coimbatore International Airport has also been added in the second round. This news has been circulating on social media and In response to this, industrialists across the region say they will wholeheartedly welcome this move once it is officially announced, it will go a long way in meeting the aviation needs of seven districts in the Kongu belt.
Speaking to Simplicity, sources from the aviation industry said, "Based on the Civil Aviation Minister's statement, 12 airports are going to be privatised in the second round. In May, 2020, the Ministry approved the proposal of privatising airports in Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur, and Trichy in Tamilnadu. Recently, the Ministry has recommended privatising Coimbatore International Airport and Kozhikode Airport in the second round. A nod from the Cabinet is awaited. Soon we can expect the announcement."
Director of Kongu Global Forum, D.Nanda Kumar, said,"News about privatising Coimbatore Airport has made us happy. We wholeheartedly welcome it. This initiative would help not only Coimbatore but also seven districts in the Kongu region. Once the privatisation is done all the issues which are presently witnessed including airport expansion and adding Coimbatore Airport to the point-of-call bilateral agreement for getting more international flight services will be solved."
Indian Green Building Council's Coimbatore chapter Chairman, Rajesh Lund, said,"Privatisation has many advantages. The airport will get state of the art infrastructure. Privatisation will accelerate decision making process in a lot of areas and will give more vibrancy to Coimbatore and surrounding districts.
Pending land acquisition process, runway expansion and many such issues will see the light of the day in no time. If the airport is privatised, we would wholeheartedly welcome it."
Meanwhile, a top official at the Coimbatore International Airport said that Coimbatore is not in the second round of privatisation.