The Government of India has announced plans to privatize the operations of four airports at Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Chennai.

All these airports are currently under the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI).

About nine developers have shown interest in the airports, including Mumbai airport developer GVK, Delhi airport developer GMR, Zurich Airports and the Adanis. AII has announced that only the top six bidders will be considered.

It is expected that the concession contracts will have a period of 30 years.

In 2013, AAI launched tender processes for the concessioning of these airports. However, these processes did not progress any further and AAI is considering new contracts.

In September 2013 the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation launched a request for qualification (RFQ) for the operation, management and development of Chennai airport. At that time the total project investment was estimated at Rs12 billion (US$193 million).

Later in October 2013, we reported that the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation launched RFQ for the airports at Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.  At that time, the estimated projects investment required in the RFQs were the following:

• Jaipur airport: Rs5.5 billion (US$88.5 million)
• Ahmedabad airport: Rs7 billion (US$112.6 million)
• Kolkata airport: Rs7 billion (US$112.6 million)