PPPAC Approves Privatisation of 11 Airports

Gist The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee PPPAC has granted in-principle approval to the Ministry of Civil Aviation 's proposal to privatise 11 airports across five bundles . To prevent the market dominance witnessed in previous privatisation drives, the government plans to cap the number of bundles a single bidder can win. Aspirants should study this as it illustrates a critical course correction in infrastructure policy, balancing the need for private investment against the risks of market monopolies and corporate over-leveraging. Background Infrastructure projects involving private investment are evaluated by the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee PPPAC , which assesses project viability before routing them for cabinet approval. In the previous round of airport privatisation, the Adani Group successfully bid for all six airports that were on offer. During that earlier round, the PPPAC had overruled objections from the Finance Ministry and NITI Aayog , who had recommended restricting awards to a maximum of two airports per bidder and requiring prior airport operations and management experience. Following the resultant concentration of assets with a single operator, the government is now…