Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri justified the govt's move to lease out the airport to Adani Enterprises in public private partnership mode for 50 years, despite Adani Enterprises reporting a net loss of Rs 65.67 crore for the quarter ended June, compared with a net profit of Rs 570.14 crore a year ago.
Minister said that "It was stipulated if the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) bid comes within the 10 per cent range of the winning bid, they would be awarded the work. There was a difference of 19.64 per cent between them and the next bidder when bids were open," the Civil Aviation Minister said.
The Left government and even the Congress-led United Democratic Front have opposed the move. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the decision overlooked Kerala's repeated requests that the airport's operations and management be transferred to a special purpose vehicle in which the state government is a major stakeholder.
Kerala has experience of operating Kochi and Kannur airports but Kerala's interests were overlooked. All political parties in Kerala except the BJP were against the Modi govt's move.
Surprisingly, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has backed the Modi govt's decision adding Thiruvananthapuram is his constituency and "The people of Thiruvananthapuram want a first-class airport worthy of the city's history, status, and potential. In this context, a decision, however controversial, is preferable to the long delay we have suffered".
In February last year, Adani Enterprises was given the contract to run six airports as it was the highest bidder. In July 2019, the centre approved the proposal for leasing out three of them - Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow - to the Adani Enterprises.
Apart from Adani, Another Gujarati billionaire Mukesh Ambani is on the top of world. His wealth is growing by leaps and bounds. As on Friday, every 1 per cent rise in the RIL stock was adding $920 million, or Rs 6,900 crore to Ambani's wealth. That number will keep on growing as the base rises. At the end of June quarter, Mukesh Ambani holding in RIL stood at 50.37 per cent; Ambani alone owns a little less than 50 per cent.
Ambani's wealth stood at $80.60 billion on Friday, up by a whopping $22 billion so far this year. He has just got past French billionaire Bernard Arnault, who leads luxury goods company Louis Vuitton. The rise in Ambani's wealth was due to a sharp 147 per cent surge in RIL shares from the March low of Rs 867. On Friday, the stock rose 0.57 per cent to close at Rs 2,146, giving Ambani’s fortune a $326 million lift, Bloomberg Billionaire index showed.
(Chander Sharma)
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