Tharoor said the Kerala government chose to participate in the bidding and started questioning after losing it
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has backed Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on leasing out the Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Enterprises through public private partnership (PPP) for a period of 50 years.
After the Kerala government had opposed the Union Cabinet's approval to lease out the airport, Puri took to Twitter and said the state government did not qualify in Thiruvananthapuram airport's bidding process that was carried out in a transparent manner.
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Before the bidding process, the Centre and the Kerala government agreed that, if the KSIDC's bid came within the 10 percent range of the winning bid, it would be awarded the airport, Puri said in a series of tweets. However, since the difference between Adani's bid and KSIDC's bid was 19.64 percent during the bidding process, the former was qualified as the winner.
Throor, who represents the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, said the thread was “quite accurate”.
He said the Kerala government chose to participate in the bidding and started questioning after losing it, adding that the interest of travellers mattered, not of the government.
“This thread is quite accurate. Government of Kerala chose to participate in the bidding, under rules they agreed, and after losing in the fair process, started questioning the very game they had chosen to play. What really matters is the interests of the travellers of Thiruvananthapuram, not the government's,” tweeted Tharoor.This thread is quite accurate. GoK chose to participate in the bidding,under rules they agreed,&after losing in the fair process,started questioning the very game they had chosen to play. What really matters is the interests of the travellers of Thiruvananthapuram,not the govt's. https://t.co/gm5Y0N5Zka
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 20, 2020
Earlier, Throor said that a private entity running the operations competitively is the only way this airport can flourish.
Tharoor’s comment came while the state Congress was opposing the move.
Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ramesh Chennithala of Congress described the decision as a "dictatorial act", which was “unacceptable” and should be “resisted” while state party chief Mullapally Ramachandran called the move 'deplorable'.
In February 2019, Adani Enterprises was declared the winner for six airports as it was the highest bidder. These airports were Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.