Mumbai Airport still at birth-pang stage: Yechury

Mumbai: Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) Politburo Member Sitaram Yechury, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism & Culture, said today that “though things look chaotic at Mumbai Airport at the moment, the future looks pretty good on paper”. In the country’s commercial capital along with 13 other members of the 35-strong committee to assess the airport’s ongoing privatisation process, he said, “The airport is going through a phase of birth pangs.”
The privatisation process is facing several controversies, from opposition by the Airport Authority of India Employees’ Union (AAEU) to questions on rehabilitation.
Apart from these issues, the House panel also discussed with employees’ representatives the merger of Air India and Indian into National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL). Representations were made to Yechury by AAEU and NACIL’s union under the umbrella Joint Action Committee (JAC). “There are some decisions that have been taken in the past, which cannot be reversed,” Yechury pointed out, referring to the privatisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports on the basis of the operations, management, development agreement (OMDA), which is yet to be recognised by the 15,000-strong AAI union. “However, there is still scope for development of facilities while working within the constraints... on that we have made suggestions to the government,” he added. He said that while Mumbai Airport has been privatised, there is no question of privatising Air Traffic Control (ATC) operations as that would involve security issues.
20/09/08 Shashank Shekhar/Expressindia.com

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Categories: Airports Sep 2008