Tvm airport: Collective bats for privatisation

Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst protest from various sectors against the privatisation of Trivandrum International Airport, a collective of people under the banner of Trivandrum Airport Users convened a meeting on Sunday.
The meeting on the future prospects of the airport post public-private partnership (PPP), chaired by Anil Kumar Pandala.
“The reason cited – lack of facilities – for cancellation of flights and no new airlines approaching the airport was proved wrong when the airport operated around 600 flights when Kochi airport was closed during the August floods in the state.In case of PPP model, the operation and management will be taken up by private operators while air traffic control (ATC) will remain with Airport Authority of India (AAI). The airport will develop under any private operator, as the focus will be on revenue generation through more connectivity,” said Pandala, who was vice-president of Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company.
S N Raghuchandran Nair, chairman of airport users consultative committee, opined that lack of political ownership or a patron has affected the development of the airport. “The elected representative becomes subservient of the party, which may not be interested in the demand for improving air connectivity,” he said.
Questioning the protest against the privatisation move, the collective said no stakeholder raised any objection when flights were cancelled or UDF was hiked or land acquisition for the airport was delayed. Citing the example of KSRTC, they also made a comparison between airports by governments and private operators. They group has also planned pro-privatisation campaign through social media. tnn