• Wednesday, May 08, 2024

Business

Indian aviation ministry, Adani Group ink MoU for airport services

Indian civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. (Photo CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIA’S civil aviation ministry on Wednesday (25) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Adani Group for providing services at three airports of the country – Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, an official statement said.

The services will include customs, immigration and security.

It may be mentioned here that in February 2019, the Narendra Modi government had privatised six major airports in India (Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru apart from the three mentioned above) and the Adani Group, which is based in Modi’s home state Gujarat, bagged the rights through a competitive bidding process to run all of them for 50 years.

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The group took responsibility for Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru airports in October and November last year.

“An MoU for providing Reserved Services (customs, immigration, plant and animal quarantine services, health services, meteorological and security services) was signed between MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) and Adani Enterprises Ltd for Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports,” the MoCA said on Twitter.

An agreement for providing communication navigation surveillance-air traffic management (CNS-ATM) services at these airports was also executed between Adani Enterprises and the Airports Authority of India on Wednesday, the ministry said.

“The MoU was signed by Rubina Ali, Joint Secretary, MoCA, and Parikshit Kaul, Senior Vice President, Adani Enterprises, while the CNS-ATM agreement was signed between S Swaminathan, GM (ATS), AAI and Parikshit Kaul in presence of AAI chairman, board members and senior officials,” the ministry said.

On August 5, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who took over in July, told the Indian parliament that the Adani Group was allowed a three-month extension to take over the airports in Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.

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