The Supreme Court judgement on divestment of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation will not have any bearing on the privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
"There is no hitch whatsoever. We are doing what has been stated in the Airports Authority of India Act and will go ahead as scheduled," Civil Aviation Secretary K Roy Paul said in Mumbai on Thursday.
"The clock has started ticking ever since the Cabinet decided to privatise these airports last Thursday and the airports will be handed over to the new company within the stipulated time or even earlier," he said while addressing a conference on airport transport-Maharashtra organised by FICCI and state government.
A four-member empowered committee of the Cabinet has been set up to take whatever decisions were necessary to ensure there was no delay in the process, he added.
Paul said: "A few issues need to be cleared in the next few days and a clear-cut policy will emerge out of privatisation of nine other airports also."
"We will seek whatever clarifications are necessary from the committee," the secretary added.
He said the ministry would invite expression of interest in the next couple of months. However, there would be no roadshows but an advisor would be appointed shortly.
The new civil aviation policy, which is being formulated, would be based on the Naresh Chandra committee report, providing the roadmap for further liberalising the aviation sector, Paul told reporters.
The first part of the report would include the role of state-owned airlines - Air India and Indian Airlines -- private airlines, the extent of FDI permissibility, domestic airlines flying on international routes, allowing more foreign airlines to come in and regulatory mechanism for airport and role of directorate general of civil aviation, he said.
This first part would be presented in October and the details would comprise the second part, which would be submitted a month later, he said.
"So far we have been tinkering in an ad-hoc manner mainly due to lack of vision and refraining from investments in the sector," Paul said.
Things have changed now and government has realised the need to go on a fast track to build airports of international quality, he said, adding that "we will welcome private participation in a big way."
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