Govt plans to lease out 20-25 more airports: Official

New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) Central government plans to lease out 20-25 more airports in the country, senior official said on Friday.According to Airports Authority of India Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra, these airports will have substantial passenger traffic of 1-1.5 million annually. Last year, the government approved a proposal to leasing out of six airports -- Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru -- for operation, management and development under the Public Private Partnership (PPP).Currently, the airports being managed under the PPP model include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin. As per the industry estimates, PPP in infrastructure projects brings efficiency in service delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism apart from harnessing the needed investments in the public sector.This was Mohapatra's last media interaction as AAI Chairman. He will assume his new responsibilities as Secretary of Department of Industry and Internal Trade from August 1.
--IANS rv/prs