AAI recommends Centre to privatise 6 airports including Amritsar, Varanasi
New Delhi, Dec 1: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has recommended the Centre to privatise airports at Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy, a senior government official said.
The recommendation came as the central government has already privatised airports at Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for operation, management and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model in February this year.
"As six airports have already been privatised in February this year, the AAI in its board meeting on September 5 decided to privatise six more airports: Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy," a senior government official told PTI.
"Once the board took this decision, the recommendation was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation," the official added.
The AAI, which works under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, owns and manages more than 100 airports across the country.
In February this year, in the first round of airport privatisation, the Adani Group bagged contract for all six airports by winning the bids with huge margins.
The AAI had chosen the winner on the basis of the "per-passenger fee" offered by the bidders.
On July 3, the Union Cabinet had approved the leasing out of Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore airports to Adani Group. The cabinet is yet to approve the leasing out of the other three.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
