By Shailendra Bhatnagar and Nitin Luthra NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Police took over much of the running of the country’s two main airports on Thursday as striking workers protested for a second day over threatened job cuts because of privatisation. Garbage bins were overflowing, toilets were left uncleaned and passengers had to walk to terminals […]
By Shailendra Bhatnagar and Nitin Luthra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Police took over much of the running of the country’s two main airports on Thursday as striking workers protested for a second day over threatened job cuts because of privatisation.
Garbage bins were overflowing, toilets were left uncleaned and passengers had to walk to terminals in the capital after protesters blockaded the main road to New Delhi airport.
Authorities advised passengers to travel light and arrive early for flights and said backup services at the airports were in line with international safety standards.
“We have not compromised on safety. Passengers should be rest assured that safety has not been compromised,” Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad told reporters.
India, Asia’s third-largest economy, has embarked on a drive to modernise and revamp its Soviet-era airports in New Delhi, the capital, and Mumbai, the financial hub.
But the move has angered workers and nearly 23,000 members of the state-run Airports Authority of India have declared an indefinite strike over the move to bring in private companies to take over and modernise the shabby, run-down airports.
In Mumbai, the financial hub, the airport was strewn with litter, and in the eastern city of Kolkata baggage handling came to a standstill with airline staff helping passengers disembark.
But flights, with minor delays, were still operating.
“We’re going to intensify our agitation until the government relents,” Nitin Jadhav, general secretary of Airports Authority Employees Union in Mumbai told Reuters.
“It is the question of the lives of thousands of airport employees and their families.”
Congested waiting areas, a lack of comfortable seating, slow baggage handling and unreliable power supplies make travel a misery for India’s fast-expanding middle classes who increasingly take to the air for long-distance journeys.
BELOW INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
The airports in both cities, which between them handled nearly half the estimated 50 million passengers who travelled by air in India last year, fall well below international standards.
The bid to revamp the New Delhi airport was awarded to a consortium led by India’s GMR group and German airport operator Fraport on Tuesday.
The Mumbai airport was awarded to a group led by India’s GVK Industries Ltd. and the Airports Company of South Africa.
The government will hand over control and management to joint ventures of the respective groups but will retain a 26 percent stake in both.
Leftist parties which provide key parliamentary support to the Congress-Party led coalition government also oppose the move as they want the modernisation to be led by the state so that job losses are kept to the minimum, if not eliminated altogether.
One worker, who declined to be named, said he feared for his future.
“What guarantee is there that I would be given a job. These private companies have already said they will not keep 40 percent of us,” he said.
But the government said it was willing to talk to workers and explain their jobs would not be taken away.
“We have taken care to protect the interests of employees. No employee will lose his job,” Prasad said.
Some passengers said those battling the government were fighting a lost cause.
“The communist parties can only cause trouble and they block the development of the country. Airports should be privatised so they can be modernised and have better facilities,” said businessman Sourov Baruah.
One bidder, Reliance Airport Developers, whose financial bid for the Delhi airport was rejected on technical grounds despite being the highest, has already petitioned the courts for redress.
Prasad said the government was studying the petition and formulating a response.
(Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer and N. Ananthanarayanan
Source Reuters
