Privatisation of Trivandrum airport: Finance minister urges Tharoor to rethink his position favouring Adani group

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance minister Thomas Isaac has urged Shashi Tharoor MP to rethink his stance favouring Adani group in privatisation of Trivandrum International Airport. He has written an open letter to Tharoor in a social-media page answering queries related to the privatisation.
Tharoor had explained his stance on privatisation in a meeting of MPs held prior to Lok Sabha session.
Mentioning the fund required for investment in the airport, Isaac said funds can be arranged and MP should not turn a blind eye to massive investment made by the state government for infrastructure development in Kerala.
“You (Tharoor) justify your stance by stating negligence on the part of AAI on the development of Trivandrum airport. Even if it is true, it is not a solution to handover a public property like an airport to a corporate company. I request you, as local MP, to take a favourable stance for Kerala. We have experience from Cial and can operate TIAL in a better way,” Isaac said.
Citing Vizhinjam seaport project, Isaac said the state does not have the expertise to construct Vizhinjam deep-water seaport and compete with Colombo, Singapore and Colachel seaports.
“Although it was a project that drew a lot of criticism when we were in the opposition, as a government-initiated investment project, we realise that such interventions will obstruct Kerala’s long-term development needs. Government has formed capital region development programme so that Thiruvananthapuram district gets the benefit when the Vizhinjam project gets completed,” Isaac said.
Comparing the privatisation of public property to plunder by British, he said, “The state openly welcomes private investment but cannot allow looting of public property. Central government had given us assurance twice that our demand will be considered in the bidding and we participated in the bid after registering our disapproval. Later, the central government announced unilaterally to hand over the airport to a private entity,” Isaac said.
Mentioning the acres given at free of cost by the government to FACT and Velloor Newsprint factory, he said the government has to pay to get back the land that was not used by the company.
Stating MPs stance as suicidal for the airport, Isaac reiterated the demand that Tharoor should support the stand taken by the state.
Meanwhile, Tharoor, in a new video shared in a social media group, asked people to support the PPP model for the airport put forward by the central government for the development of Thiruvananthapuram.
“A modern, effective and well-functioning airport is indispensable if we want Trivandrum to develop and grow. In my very many efforts to attract companies to come to the city and locate themselves here, many have told me that connectivity is a major disincentive. I have nothing against the state government. But, the state government is naturally interested in all four international airports equally. Whereas a private operator, even if it is only motivated by profit and greed, will have every incentive to make sure that Thiruvananthapuram does better than the others. We must have a competitive, modern and efficient airport, therefore let’s work to go ahead with the PPP model arrangement that the central government has indeed decided to give us,” said Tharoor.