Air India raised Rs 738 cr in 6 years via real estate sale

NEW DELHI:  National carrier Air India (AIL), which is soon to be privatised, has raised Rs 738 crore from the sale of its real estate assets since 2015, and earned rental income of about Rs 100 crore annually from its properties, Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Singh, in a written reply, said that Air India has sold 115 units of real estate assets from 2015 till July 12, 2021. “AIL has identified 111 parcels of properties for monetisation out of which 106 parcels of properties are in India and rest five are overseas properties… The 111 parcels of properties consist of 211 units which are under monetisation,” the minister said.

Air India has been monetising its immovable assets to offset its massive debt of around Rs 60,000 crore.
Last month, a public notice was issued inviting e-auction bids for sale of Air India properties located across India. The property included residential as well as commercial units is prime cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The divestment-bound airline was looking to raise Rs 200 to 300 crore by selling these real estate assets.

Earlier this month, Singh had informed that financial bids for Air India are likely to be received from qualified interested bidders (QIBs) by September 15 this year. Without disclosing details of the QIBs, Singh had reiterated that the government has received “multiple” expressions of interest for Air India’s privatisation.