Adani Enterprises paid ₹1,103 crore to state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) for taking over airport assets at Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow, minister of state for civil aviation VK Singh said on Monday.
In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Singh stated that under the concession agreements, the concessionaires of airports in Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, and Lucknow were required to pay the Airports Authority of India (AAI) an amount of Rs. 1,103 crore, which included capital for Regulatory Assets Base (RAB) for aeronautical and non-aeronautical assets, as well as the Cost of Capital Work in Progress (CWIP) incurred by AAI at these airport.
So far, the concessionaires have paid AAI a total of approximately Rs. 1103 crore, which includes the deemed initial RAB up to 31.03.2018 and the cost of CWIP as of the respective airports’ takeover date,” Singh said.
“The remaining adjusted deemed initial RAB up to the airports’ takeover date, as determined by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA), is part of the balance payment that the Concessionaires is obligated to pay,” he added.
In November 2020, Adani Enterprises took over operations at Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, and Lucknow airports.
According to Singh, the franchisee had earlier in 2020 invoked force majeure due to the pandemic and requested a 205-day extension to take over the airports.
The AAI, on the other hand, gave the concessionaire a 90-day extension to take over the airports, he added.
After acquiring a controlling stake in MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Ltd) earlier this year, Adani Enterprises became the country’s largest airport operator. After Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is the country’s second busiest.