(FE)
Air India has plans to sell 30 unutilised tracts of land in cities like Mumbai and Delhi to retire the debt transferred to special purpose vehicle Air India Asset Holding, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Parliament on Thursday. These land parcels include 1.7 lakh sq m and 14,326 sq m plots in Mumbai and New Delhi, respectively. Other cities where the national carrier holds unused land are Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
The government transferred Air India’s debt worth Rs 29,464 crore, along with its non-core assets including land into AIAHL, to reduce the interest burden of the airline and improve its balance sheet before the disinvestment. The carrier had a total debt of Rs 58,351 crore at the end of March 31, 2019.
Puri said Air India has earned Rs 535 crore through sale of its non-core assets at various cities in India and abroad. It has also received a rental income of Rs 314 crore from its assets, he told Lok Sabha. The monetisation of assets is part of the turnaround plan of Air India devised in 2012. A lot of properties have been entangled in legal issues which has slowed down the sale process. The plan was to garner Rs 500 crore annually for a period of 10 years, starting 2013. In April 2019, Air India managed to sell around 10 out of 56 residential units mainly due to high reserve prices.
