Much before the actual process of airport privatisation started, the ministry had proposed to rationalise passenger traffic flow, both at Delhi and Mumbai airports, by sharing the terminals designated for Indian Airlines. The logic was that two-thirds of the actual traffic used congested terminals marked for private airlines while there was less-than-half capacity utilisation of the IA terminal. No sooner had this proposal been heard that IA was up in arms, threatening a flash strike. The proposal was declared to be an attempt to privatise the airlines and a step closer to handing over national pride to private companies. It is altogether a different matter that this crusade was orchestrated by the headstrong CMD of Indian Airlines who believed that any innovation emanating from the ministry was the first thing to be shot down.
Privatisation of the two major metro hubs will see the emergence of so-called world-class airports — with glass and steel scaffolding, colour discipline, hygienic and savvy coffee outlets, duty-free shops and none of the seeping walls or overflowing and stinking urinals and soiled seats. While it is presumed that with new management, the change will be immediate, the old hands of Airports Authority of India (AAI) will have to be retrained. Now the AAI, good or bad, has served the nation for the last 55 years. It is a challenging task for any new management to motivate and train old hands to deliver in the new environment.
Why could the government not attempt this task on its own? Not because it is incompetent, inefficient or lacks the ability to innovate but mainly because the decision-making hierarchy is besieged by a plethora of controls and regulations with simply no space or authority to apply one’s mind or pursue excellence. Then there are the internal audit, the CVO, the CVC, the CBI, the AG’s audit, the Parliament, the committees and the political masters. Then there is the media which has taken upon itself the task of asserting their own viewpoint on every government decision.
Close scrutiny of the airport bid process will show how cumbersome is the government process. The matter was first taken to the Union cabinet which constituted the Empowered Group of Ministers (Egom) which in turn entrusted the process to the inter-ministerial group (IMG). The IMG then set up the evaluation committee (EC) followed by the creation of a government review committee (GRC). Egom then constituted the committee of secretaries which then constituted a group of eminent technical experts (GETE). Is anyone interested in knowing more? This is the story of the two airports. What if the same were to be repeated for all the other 78 functional airports?
{{/usCountry}}Close scrutiny of the airport bid process will show how cumbersome is the government process. The matter was first taken to the Union cabinet which constituted the Empowered Group of Ministers (Egom) which in turn entrusted the process to the inter-ministerial group (IMG). The IMG then set up the evaluation committee (EC) followed by the creation of a government review committee (GRC). Egom then constituted the committee of secretaries which then constituted a group of eminent technical experts (GETE). Is anyone interested in knowing more? This is the story of the two airports. What if the same were to be repeated for all the other 78 functional airports?
{{/usCountry}}The NDA government started the modernisation process in 2003, constituting the Egom, the group including Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitley. This was followed by the selection and appointment of the financial and legal consultant and a global technical advisor through international bidding. The global tendering process was scheduled to be over with the bids by August 2004. But by then the NDA was out of power. In its place was a government which had the Left parties steering it. It took more than a year and a half to complete the bid process. Due credit goes to my successor who deftly pursued the matter to an amicable solution.
The Reliance group has already headed to the courts crying foul. But the most pertinent question here is whether there is any revenue loss for the government. The answer is in the negative and both at Delhi and Mumbai the revenue sharing ratio is credibly higher than the stipulated minimum mark, ruling out any underhand deal. Both the Indian corporate houses and their consortium members have a reasonably good track record. Reliance are the big brothers and should allow new entrepreneurship in the market. If it’s a matter of being checkmated on a political plank, then trouble-shooter Amar Singh should take care of that. But if judicial intervention reverses the tender orders then the country will have to wait God knows till when. That will be a matter of gleeful delight for AAI union leaders and the Left will be back at the airports waving red flags.
But the Left must explain its intemperate political behaviour. Were they not aware that the decision to modernise and privatise the two airports was taken by the NDA government? If they were convinced that this was a breach of the common minimum programme, shouldn’t the decision have been scrapped right after the UPA’s formation? Why did they have to incite and fool the unions? Why did Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat and Dipankar Mukherjee cry foul when they had already agreed to support the government? What happens to a nation where a party which steers the fate and course of the government so openly maintains an insidious posture and displays such dishonesty?
For now, let GMR (Fraport) and GVK (South Africa) create a benchmark of excellence, with the government allowing the AAI to modernise the remaining 78 airports. AAI has enough work at hand and the reserve fund lying with them could be utilised to create state-of-art airports. It is unfortunate that in all its years of power, the Congress failed to equip the AAI to keep pace with the changing world scenario.