Visitors to Mumbai airport can observe that all promises of a makeover of the airport by its private developer have come to naught. Only the domestic wing of the Mumbai airport has had a facelift — courtesy Airport Authority of India.

The reasons for this are not hard to fathom. Airport development contracts have turned into goldmines for contract winners. The tender terms stipulate that private airport developers get a 60 per cent share of AAI earnings from that airport. This enormous earning is assured to the developer even if he does nothing and sits idly at home.

Even this earning pales in comparison to the lucrative business of commercial development of land close to the airports. All private airport developers are selling out spaces for restaurants, duty-free shops and hotels. For example, in Mumbai, once the slums near the airport are removed, private contractor GVK will get one crore square feet of prime land for development worth Rs 8,000 crore. Even if one pays Rs 500 crore for winning the tender for airport development, land rights alone allow him to earn thousands of crores. The private developer in Delhi is also making money out of his contract, but at least his work on the airport is visible.

Grainy picture

A glance at our statistics on agricultural exports reveals a shocking picture. India has the second largest arable land in the world after the US, and the country is the third largest producer of food in the world. Despite this, India ranked 22nd in the world in agricultural and allied products exports, with a measly 1.16 per cent market share. Ironically, food grains take the maximum share of our agri exports.

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