Mangaluru : The union government had given six airports in the country on lease to Adani Group headed by Gautham Adani. The lease for maintenance of the airport will be for 50 years, and the company feels that the entire process of takeover may take about a year.

The operation of the airport, maintenance, terminal and other development works will be undertaken by Adani Group during the period of lease. Runway expansion is on its priority list. The company has currently undertaken scrutiny of airport assets, staff functioning, source of income, security system, airlines operating from here and other things. Experts deputed by the company are busy with this task.

Some employees are worried about the prospects of losing their jobs, but Adani Group has said that it will give preference to existing employees and interests of the locals would be protected.

As Adani Group will invest huge amounts towards developing the airport, hike in per passenger charges, monthly rent of commercial stalls, and charges for services being availed by customers may go up along with the parking fee. Charges for the aircrafts touching down and parked in hangars here may also go up, it is said. It is learnt that the group plans to set up ‘Adani Airports Ltd’ exclusively for managing airports.

Adani plans to build separate complex malls at the airport here and to work to make it more passenger-friendly. Kishore Alva, president of Adani Group in Karnataka, said that it may take a year for the government to complete all processes and hand over the airport to the company.