11 airports to see Rs 8,622 crore private investment under 50-year concessions

Mumbai: India expects private operators to invest about ₹8,622 crore in 11 airports that the government plans to award under 50-year concessions.

The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC)gave in-principle approval to the proposal at its August 4 meeting, showed minutes reviewed by ET.

The 11 airports will be offered in five bundles, with each awarded to a single concessionaire.


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The Bhubaneswar-Hubballi bundle has the highest estimated investment requirement at ₹2,725 crore, followed by Varanasi-Gaya-Kushinagar at ₹2,467 crore. Raipur-Aurangabad requires ₹1,496 crore, Tiruchirappalli-Tirupati ₹1,411 crore, and Amritsar-Kangra ₹523 crore.

The investment will cover capital expenditure, or capex, by the concessionaires, including spending already sanctioned by the Airports Authority of India and additional expenditure required to expand capacity.

The sanctioned capex will have to be completed within three years of commencing commercial operations.

Further expansion will be linked to traffic and capacity thresholds under Airports Economic Regulatory Authority norms, according to the minutes.

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The government is also looking to limit concentration by capping the number of airport bundles that a single bidder can win.

"The number of airport bundles that may be awarded to a single bidder would be capped," the minutes read, citing risks from market concentration and potential over-leveraging. The modalities of the cap are still being worked out.

The move follows the government's 2019 airport privatisation round, when the Adani Group won all six airports on offer.