Govt to probe revenue loss by airport JVs

The ministry of civil aviation has directed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to appoint an independent consultant to look into each joint venture (JV) floated by the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and submit a report on whether these JVs are causing losses of revenues to the government.

DIAL is a private-led consortium that runs the Capital's IGI Airport. The ministry's directive to AAI comes after the Hindustan Times, on December 17, 2010, reported a confidential note written by Yashwant Bhave, chief of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, India's aviation infrastructure regulator, which had pointed out that the JVs had reduced AAI's share of revenues to less than one-third of what was envisaged in the original agreement. DIAL has denied these allegations.

In 2006, DIAL had won the bid to run Delhi Airport for 30 years by pledging around 46% of its revenues to the AAI.