Adani Airport Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Adani Group, took over the administration of Mumbai airport from business giant GVK on Tuesday.
The company has grown to become the country’s largest airport infrastructure provider, with a total of eight airports under development or management. The firm now has a 25% share of passenger traffic and a 33% share of air cargo in the country.
According to the Business Standard, the group currently controls a 74 percent share in Mumbai International Airport Ltd.
The business also stated that work at the Navi Mumbai International Airport will begin in August. According to the company’s announcement, “financial closing will be accomplished in the next 90 days, and the New International Airport will be commissioned in 2024.”
Gautam Adani, the group’s chairman, stated that the company’s goal was to “reinvent airports as ecosystems that drive local economic development and act as the nuclei around which we can catalyze aviation-linked businesses”.
Adani said that his group will set up an “airport ecosystem of the future” and create thousands of new local jobs
The Adani Group won competitive bids for control of airport operations in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow, Mangalore, and Thiruvananthapuram in 2019. The consortium beat out established companies like GMR Airports Limited to win the license to operate them for the next 50 years.
According to Mint, the Adani Group proposes to postpone the purchase of the airports in Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram until December because these assets have become financially unviable due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Because of the significant financial risk involved in the project, the Department of Economic Affairs recommended in a memorandum that no more than two airports be awarded to the same bidder, according to the article.
Despite the Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog’s reservations, according to The Indian Express, the conglomerate won the bids for the six airports.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2020, protesting the Centre’s intention to hand over Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to the Adani Group. The move, according to Vijayan, is in violation of “the assurance given during a personal meeting with the prime minister in New Delhi.”
