GS 3: Economy | Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.

Why in News?

• Union Cabinet has recently given in principle approval for operating, managing and developing 6 non-metro airports under Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Key Facts:

• The airports are Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru.
• At present, airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin are managed under the PPP model.
• The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will hold a minor stake in 6 new airports under PPP, just like it does at the Delhi and Mumbai airports.
• The private player will hold at least 75 per cent stake.
• PPP bidding model – It will be held in a revenue-sharing model, where bidders are required to pay a specified share of gross revenue to the AAI.

Benefits:

• PPP in infrastructure projects brings efficiency in service delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism apart from harnessing the needed investments in the public sector.
• The PPP in airport infrastructure projects has brought World class infrastructure at airports, delivery of efficient and timely services to the airport passengers, augmenting revenue stream to the Airports Authority of India without making any investment, etc.
• The PPP airports in India have been ranked among the top 5 in their respective categories by the Airports Council International (ACI) in terms of Airport Service Quality (ASQ).
• PPP experiments have helped create world class airports, it has also helped AAI in enhancing its revenues and focusing on developing airports and Air Navigation infrastructure in the rest of the country.