NEW DELHI:  Shortly after the news of the government wants to sell its stake in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports emerged, Congress stalwart Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed the BJP government over privatization of airports by commenting on social media: "They don't know how to build but sell." Gandhi tweeted on Monday afternoon: "India Against Privatisation which hurts the public and benefits only a handful of cronies." Gandhi's attack comes in wake of the government aiming to sell its residual stake in four airports as part of the Rs 2.5 lakh crore asset monetization pipeline.

The sale of the Airport Authority of India's remaining stake in the Delhi Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports, as well as the identification of 13 more airports for privatization, has been planned for the next fiscal.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation will take approvals for divestment of equity stake of the AAI in the joint ventures running Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports. For the 13 AAI airports identified for privatisation, the possibility of bundling of profitable and non-profitable airports will be looked at to make more attractive packages.

Adani Enterprises in January had signed the concession agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for operating and developing the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports. In the first round of airport privatisation under the BJP government last year, the Adani Group bagged contracts for six airports - Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati.

In a regulatory filing, the company said that the concession period is 50 years from the commercial operation date.

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