Reliance moves court against airport contracts

Airport privatisation mired in several lawsuits, employee unrest

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 3, 2006

On the second day of strike at Indian airports, the airport privatisation process moved to the court, with Reliance Airport Developers taking the government and GMR-Fraport to the Delhi HC alleging that the whole bidding process was a farce. Reliance said that despite emerging as the highest financial bidder, it was not awarded the contract. The court petition, it said, has sought fairness and transparency in the award of contracts.

The fate of airport privatisation in India now depends on the way the legal drama unfolds. The Airport Authority of India Officers Association had already moved the Supreme Court even before the airport bids were announced. Yesterday, the International Airport Authority of India Officers Association too filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

The GMR-Fraport combine and Airports Authority of India also have filed caveats in the Supreme Court to preempt the chances of the court passing any ex-parte order without hearing them. This indicates the government's hunch that there will be a legal nightmare ahead. The government has already said that it is prepared to face any legal move.

Meanwhile, the airports continued in a state of filth with no housekeeping. Though most of the flights landed and took off on schedule, some airports have experienced delays. Affected airport operations include aerobridges, fire services, housekeeping, electricity, and communications.

The employees are protesting against handing over the state-run airports to the private sector. They fear that there will be massive job cuts following the privatisation.

In New Delhi and Mumbai, protesters gathered in large numbers outside the airports and staged sit-ins. Unlike on Tuesday, there were no lathi-charges reported. In New Delhi, most of the flights were on schedule, barring some flights from Kolkata. Protesters shouted slogans against Sonia Gandhi and Praful Patel. On Day One of the strike, Kolkata, the stronghold of Communist parties has been the worst-affected. The previous day saw a virtual shutdown of the Kolkata airport, which was lifted only after the intervention of chief minister Budhadeb Banerjee.

In Mumbai, air passengers faced major hassles to move from terminal to terminal, since the coaches plying the travellers were not operating. Many passengers had to hail cabs. Some Mumbai airport employees have started a relay hunger fast to force the government to reverse the privatisation programme. CISF and IAF staffers were deployed to take control of emergency operations. The Mumbai Fire Brigade was also called in since the airport fire service and runway staff were on strike. In Mumbai and Delhi, about 3500 AAI employees each took part in the demonstrations.

In Kolkata, the flight operations were near-normal on the second day of the strike, as against the first day of almost complete shutdown. Clearance of cargo was affected at the Chennai air cargo complex. In Hyderabad, the airport director was quoted as saying that the operations were normal. He said that only those employees who were off-duty were joining the protest demonstrations.

However, airports in Kerala which is another Red bastion did not face major problems. As part of the national strike, airport employees in Kerala too staged protests and dharnas. But flights were not disrupted. The Nedumbassery International airport at Cochin was the least affected, since this airport has very few AAI staff. Air traffic through the Coimbatore airport remained normal. At Bangalore’s HAL-controlled airport, operations were normal and peaceful. Flight Operations at the Mangalore airport were unaffected.