Centre moves to lease 11 airports to private firms for 50 years, including Varanasi and Amritsar

The Union government has stepped up preparations for a major decision on the country's airport sector. Preparations are under way to hand over the operation of 11 important airports to private companies.

Under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the airports will be given on lease for a full 50 years. The bidding process for these airports is widely expected to begin by December.

In this privatisation exercise, larger and smaller airports have been clubbed into five bundles. The Centre plans to give the entire responsibility for each bundle to a single company.

According to the proposal the government has made public, the five groups of 11 airports are as follows. The first group has Amritsar and Kangra-Gaggal. The second has Varanasi, Gaya and Kushinagar. The third has Bhubaneswar and Hubballi. The fourth has Raipur and Aurangabad, while the fifth includes Tiruchirappalli and Tirupati.

Administrative circles expect that the PPP approach will speed up the development of passenger facilities at these airports and make it possible to provide world-class amenities. The tender for this ambitious exercise is to begin by December 2026, and the whole country is watching it closely.