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AAI employees' interests will be protected: Patel

    New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said that the government has taken full care of the interests of the Airport Authority of India's employees who are demonstrating against awarding contracts for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports to private sector firms. "Employees unions have apprehension that AAI will loose money if modernisation contract is given to private sector which is baseless," said Patel. He pointed out that the unions had been pitching for five percent revenue sharing with the government while the private bidder has agreed to share 46 percent of revenue with the government in the case of Delhi airport and 38.7 percent of the revenue in the case of Mumbai airport. Patel announced that GMR-FRAPORT consortium has won the bid for mordernisation of Delhi airport, while GVK-South Africa combine has bagged the Mumbai airport project.

   After a meeting of the empowered Group of Ministers that considered various bids, Patel said the proposals of the two consortia have been approved. They will now be placed before the Cabinet tomorrow and a decision be taken tomorrow itself. Giving details of the decision, Patel said that GMR-Fraport combine had matched the highest bidder Reliance-ASA for Delhi airport by offering 45.99 per cent revenue share to the government. For Mumbai, GVK-South Africa offered 38.7 per cent revenue share. Patel also assured that Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) will not be invoked against the airport employees in case of a strike. AAI employees have threatened to go on strike from 10 AM on Wednesday. The AAI officers and employees, under the umbrella body of AAI Employees Joint Forum, have threatened to go on a flash strike if the financial bids are opened without considering the alternative plan for modernising the two metro airports.
-Jan 31,  2006

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