- NET Web Desk
The Communist Party of India-Manipur State Council (CPI-MSC) strongly opposed the privatization of Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal, Manipur.
According to the party, privatisation of the concerned airport will lead to rise in airfares and other inconsiderate policies.
“Since the Imphal International Airport has been lacking income owing to the interrupted air-traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic, it cannot be considered as non-profitable,” – stated the CPI- MSC through a press release.
Its worthy to note that recently the Centre unveiled its plans to privatise 25 airports over the next five years under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP).
As per NMP, 25 (Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports have been earmarked for asset monetization over the years 2022 to 2025 namely Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Calicut, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Chennai, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Hubli, Imphal, Agartala, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry.
According to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) VK Singh, except Kandala (0.11 crore), Kanpur Chakeri (6.07 crore), Bareilly (0.68 crores) and Porbandar (1.54 crores) all other airports suffered huge losses during the unprecedented times of COVID-19 in 2020-21.
