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Divestment in aviation, tourism ventures to continue as planned, says Ananth Kumar

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Ananth Kumar today said all the disinvestment proposals, including those for Air-India, Indian Airlines, ITDC, Pawan Hans and Hotel Corporation of India, were in various stages of finalisation.

''All disinvestment programmes under the ministries of civil aviation and tourism have been initiated and will continue as that is the broad policy. The decision on Indian Airlines disinvestment is a landmark,'' the minister said, adding that all the Cabinet notes he had referred will come up in the next couple of weeks.

The Indian Airlines disinvestment proposal envisages a eleven per cent stock option scheme for employees and 40 per cent to the financial institutions. Exact details will be finalised shortly.

Kumar said as regards Air-India, the Disinvestment Commission's recommendations had been approved by the airline's board and the ministry had sent it to the Cabinet. The Pawan Hans Helicopter Corporation disinvestment proposal was also with the Cabinet.

He said advertisements for approving consultants for the Hotel Corporation of India disinvestment plan had been placed and the ITDC disinvestment was on the anvil.

Kumar said acquisition of new aircraft for Air-India and Indian Airlines, ''which badly need replacement of the old fleet'', was an ongoing process and he had left it to the two airlines to decide.

He said the corporatisation process of the five airports was underway.

The Airports Authority of India and the Karnataka State Industrial Development Corporation had recently signed an MoU for the Bangalore airport with each having a 13 per cent stake.

Global tenders will be issued shortly for the rest 76 per cent, the minister added.

Regarding the corporatisation of the other airports, he said the process of finalising legal and financial consultations was going on and 54 respondents had come forward in this regard.

Kumar said the Rs 3.50 billion Cochin International Airport will be inaugurated in the last week of May. He said he had set a deadline of May 31 for opening up various new facilities at many airports in the country.

These include added facilities at Silchar, Jabalpur, Vijayawada, the new domestic terminal at Hyderabad, a technical building at Indore, development of apron and terminal building facilities at Patna and night landing facilities at Hubli.

The minister said the report of a committee appointed to go into the techno feasibility of expansion of the Hyderabad airport will be made shortly. He said he had met the chief minister of Gujarat and urged him to invite non resident Indian participation for extending the runway to international standards at Ahmedabad airport.

UNI

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