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Keeping in mind the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh's Budget announcement, the Government plans to kick-start the restructuring of airports with Delhi and Mumbai, officials said.

New Delhi , July 21

THE Union Cabinet is likely to grant permission to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) shortly to acquire a 26 per cent stake in the new joint venture project for restructuring the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

The proposal, put forward by the Finance Ministry, has the consent of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and is in keeping with the present policy of allowing the foreign partner to pick up the entire 74 per cent stake that is on offer.

Keeping in mind the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh's Budget announcement, the Government plans to kick-start the restructuring of airports with Delhi and Mumbai, officials said.

During the course of this year's Budget speech, Mr Singh had said that it had been decided to take up the Delhi and Mumbai airports as the principal hubs of international air travel to India for modernisation to international standards. Mr Singh had also noted that, for this purpose, two separate companies would be formed with initial equal equity participation from AAI.

Officials indicated that the current note being forwarded to the Union Cabinet for consideration will only deal with the airports in Delhi and Mumbai while a separate note will be moved for restructuring of the other airports.

For several years now, the Government has been trying to restructure the airports in the country to make them world-class entities. In an effort to ensure that the process moves forward this time, the Government introduced the Airports Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2003, in the last session of Parliament.

The Bill, which has been cleared by the Lok Sabha and is awaiting the nod from the Rajya Sabha, for the first time defines what a private sector airport is.

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