Private profit and public loss

Swank airports have been built in Hyderabad and Bengaluru and existing airports have been closed down. The strike of the workers in the existing airports to oppose their closure was condemned by the Central government and the bourgeois media as dictated by “vested interests”. In this way, the loot of the public exchequer going on in the name of modernization of airports has been deliberately glossed over.

Reality is that scandalous deals have been struck to enable private capitalists to make super profits.

There are two issues that have been consistently raised by the airport employees justifying their opposition to privatization.

The first is that AAI (Public sector Airport Authoritiy of India) has huge capital reserves, and is quite capable of building airports. Second, why existing airports in these two cities should be closed down just to allow monopoly profits for the private parties. In July 2004, behind the backs of the people, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet agreed to a clause according to which existing airports will be closed down when new airports will be constructed. This clause in the tender was never publicly admitted.

This particular aspect is only a part of the concessions given to the private parties. Both the airports of Hyderabad and Bengaluru have a budget of roughly 1400 crores. Let us see how the state has assisted them to make superprofits.

The GMR Infrastructure, in Hyderabad, got Rs.107 crore grant and Rs.315 crore interest free loan from Andhra Pradesh Government and 5000 acres of land free of cost, to build new airport at Shamshabad.

Larson & Tubro in association with Siemens and others got Rs.350 crores from Karnataka government and 4300 acres of land free of cost to build the airport in Bengaluru.

In other words, far from these organizations investing capital, it is the state and public whose capital is being invested, while the profits accrue to the private party!

The government has agreed to close down two running, revenue earning airports just to force airlines and passengers to use the private airports after paying much heavier charges. 

Under the present dispensation, loot of the public exchequer is the order of the day.