Adani Group starts 'observation period' at Guwahati airport, Utpal Baruah to be chief officer

A nine-member team of the Adani Group Monday started the "Observation Period" at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi international airport here, marking the first phase of developing and modernising the Northeast's foremost airport, officials said. In 2018, the Central government included the Guwahati airport in the group of six airports (Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur and Trivandrum), set for privatisation on the Operations, Management and Development (OMD) model for a period of 50 years.

The Adani Enterprise Limited emerged as the successful bidder for all the six airports.

Concession Agreement between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Adani Group was signed on January 19 this year in New Delhi.


The "Adani Guwahati International Airport Limited" will take over the charge of LGBI airport in October this year, the officials said.

Land near the airport has also been leased out to the company for a period of 50 years in order to develop aviation-related business and facilities.

It is known that as per the agreement, AAI personnel working presently at the airport will support Adani Group for a period of three years from now.

Utpal Baruah, an aviation industry veteran and who hails from Assam, has been appointed the Chief Airport Officer of Guwahati airport by the Adani group, they said.

Baruah has a long experience of working with the AAI and multiple private airports in the country.

Before joining the Adani group, Baruah was working at Kerala's Kannur International Airport as the COO.

He had worked at the Goa international airport, New Delhi's IGI Airport, Hyderabad's RGI Airport and Cebu airport in the Philippines.

In October this year, he will assume the charges of the Guwahati airport as airport operator from Ramesh Kumar, the present airport director of the AAI.