Air India sale: Amit Shah to head ministerial panel, Nitin Gadkari dropped

Home Minister Amit Shah is set to head the reconstituted group of ministers (GoM) on Air India disinvestment, sources told Zee Media, while adding that Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has been dropped from the panel. The new-look team will have four ministers including Amit Shah. The other ministers on the panel are Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The panel was formed to work out modalities for sale of Air India.

It was first constituted in June 2017 named Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM). Back then, it had five members and was headed by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The other four ministers on the panel included the then Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

"The AISAM has been reconstituted. It is now a four-member panel, against five members earlier," the source said, confirming that Gadkari is no more a part of it. During its first tenure, the Modi government had also invited bids to purchase stake in Air India but the process failed as no bids were placed. 

Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham to resume

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently confirmed that tri-weekly Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham Air India flight would resume on August 15. The decision was taken after Pakistan opened its airspace for civilian planes. Pakistan had shut its airspace in February after the Balakot strike by the Indian Air Force, resulting in a significant rise of Air India's operating costs on flights connecting Delhi to Europe and the US.

Following this, the national carrier suspended flights on the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham route. "This flight on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will offer easy passage to tourists and pilgrims flying to pay obeisance at the various holy places of Guru Di Nagri," Puri said in a tweet.