Mumbai: In a late night development, chairman of the state-run Airports Authority of India, VP Agarwal, was removed from his post apparently because of his "opposition" to privatisation of more airports in the country, sources said.
Alok Sinha, who is currently joint secretary in the Aviation Ministry and handling the airports, has been given additional charge of the post, according to government orders.
Agarwal was resisting the privatisation of six more airports, including Kolkata and Chennai. But the government is in a hurry and wants the process to be completed before going into elections. For this reason, Agarwal had to lose his post, sources said.
In September last year, the government had decided to allow private parties to pick up 100 per cent equity stake in operation and management of the six airports - Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow - through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Incidentally, Agarwal's five-year term as AAI chairman had expired last December but he was granted an extension.
24/01/14 PTI/India Today
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Alok Sinha, who is currently joint secretary in the Aviation Ministry and handling the airports, has been given additional charge of the post, according to government orders.
Agarwal was resisting the privatisation of six more airports, including Kolkata and Chennai. But the government is in a hurry and wants the process to be completed before going into elections. For this reason, Agarwal had to lose his post, sources said.
In September last year, the government had decided to allow private parties to pick up 100 per cent equity stake in operation and management of the six airports - Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow - through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Incidentally, Agarwal's five-year term as AAI chairman had expired last December but he was granted an extension.
24/01/14 PTI/India Today
