Ahmed Patel questions MoU with Changi Airport International

NEW DELHI: Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, has raised a series of questions on the government decision to hand over operations and management of Ahmedabad and Jaipur airport to Changi Airport International through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Singapore Corporation Enterprise. The MoU was signed during the PM Narendra Modi's Singapore visit last month. Patel charged the government with 'flouting stated policy norms' and 'doing away' with rigorous selection process and asked why the MoU covered just two airports.

In a letter to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Patel said, "surprisingly on August 20, the government decided to abruptly cancel the entire process of competitive bidding for the operation, management and development of Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chennai and Kolkata airports and subsequently, via a government-to-government MoU, decided to award the same mandate to a foreign operator for Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports".

Maintaining that this decision went against the stated policy norms, Patel in his letter said, "India's policy on airport infra has encouraged an open, consultative and competitive model of public private partnership which protects the interest of the Airport Authority of India and at the same time promotes private participation. The successful redevelopment of Delhi and Mumbai airports were based on this policy. Hence I find it surprising that without any explicit change in policy the government bypassed due process and has abruptly selected an operator to manage two of India's most important airports. The closed nature in which the government arrived at this crucial decision is beyond reasonable comprehension,".

Patel asked why the government zeroed on a particular operator without going through a rigorous selection process