The private sector will soon be looking after the management of the airport terminal buildings in Ahmedabad and Jaipur, Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman Airports Authority of India said on Monday.

“We will replace all our manpower there. The private sector operator who wins the bid to manage the airports will be given a clean slate. He will bring his manpower. The existing machinery deployment will be there but it is for them to add other efficiencies to it in terms of machinery and managerial efficiencies. Inside the terminal he will manage everything,” Mohapatra said at a press conference.

Tenders for handing over airport terminal management at Jaipur and Ahmedabad are already out and the winner will be the party which quotes the lowest cost for managing the airports as well as the highest revenue increase. While the city side land at these two airports will not be given the car parking areas at Jaipur and Ahmedabad will be part of the contract, the Chairman said. The contract for airport terminal management will be for 15 years.

This is the second attempt that the Modi Government is making to involve the private sector in the management of terminal buildings at Ahmedabad and Jaipur. In November 2015, the Governments of India and Singapore signed an agreement for Singapore airport developer Changi being nominated for taking up the operations and management of the two Indian airports.

The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the island city state and was to see Changi manage the retail space inside the terminal buildings and also the car parking spaces. The initiative, however, did not materialise.

There will be a stakeholder meeting for those planning to participate in the bidding process for the two airports in early February and the Authority hopes to hand over the contract before the end of March 2017. The current AAI employees at the two airports will be redeployed at other airports that the state owned airport operator manages, the Chairman added .

Meanwhile, the Authority is planning to provide an `e-enabled flying experience’ at Vijaywada and Vadodara’s new airports where everything will be e-enabled. ``Vijayawada and Vadodara are being targeted as they are modern integrated terminal buildings. It is time to see whether in the next 3-6 months we can make it a completely different experience,” the Chairman said.

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