Bids for the privatisation of six Indian airports have been postponed once again, making it the fourth deferral since November last year. The delay has been attributed to the ongoing general elections, said officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the nodal agency overseeing the bidding process.

A new round of bidding will now take place sometime in June, the date for which is not fixed yet, said a senior AAI official.

The due date for the Requests for Qualification (RFQ) for the Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Guwahati airports had earlier been pushed from January-end to February 17, and to February 12 for Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports. These dates were further pushed to March 17 and then to April 15.

Several private infrastructure firms ? both local and international ones ? such as IL&FS Transportation Networks, Essar Projects India, Cochin International, Essel Infraprojects, GVK, Fraport, Saudi Arabia, GMR Airports, Sahara Group and Turkish firm Celebi Habacilik Holding AS have expressed their interest to develop these airports.

?We currently have about 30 bidders, both domestic and international players, who are interested to bid for the airports,? said the AAI official.

However, the revenue-sharing agreement between the private operators, who are set to run these airports, and AAI, which will hold at least 26% in each of the airports under hammer, is currently not yet finalised.

While the officials from the civil aviation ministry favour predetermined rates that would bring in certainty in the amount of charges that will be levied on passengers, floating tariff rates with Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) revising tariffs every five years could also be considered.

?The issue is still to be resolved and will be reflected on the Model Concession Agreement (MCA). We will share MCA with the bidders once its finalized. Whether it will be a pre-determined tariff or decided by AERA after five years is a contention AAI is still working on,? the AAI official added.

Aviation ministry will take both aero and non-aero revenues into account while determining the revenue-sharing arrangement between AAI and the private players.

Private operators run four of the country’s six metro airports ? Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. The AAI recently modernised two of the six airports which are up for bids, Kolkata and Chennai, for a whopping Rs 2,325 crore and Rs 2,015 crore, respectively.