Days after taking over the management control of the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) from the GVK Group, Adani Group on Sunday announced that it has made several changes in key leadership positions in Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), its airport holding company, and MIAL. The changes have been made to consolidate and push through the transition of the country’s second largest airport into its folds.
It further announced that the company will relocate the head office of AAHL to Ahmedabad from Mumbai. Adani Group said that RK Jain, the chief executive officer (CEO) of MIAL will take over as CEO of Adani Airports, replacing incumbent Ben Zandi, who will take over as CEO (non-aero) at AAHL.
“RK Jain has been associated with MIAL since inception and has been instrumental in developing MIAL as one of the leading airports in India. His contribution at MIAL spans over more than 15 years. He has been credited with winning Navi Mumbai Airport project and was actively involved as CEO of NMIAL”, said the company in a press release.
“He will be fully involved to shape (a) scheme for airport slum rehabilitation to take it to (the) implementation stage. He will also be involved in the airport regulatory issues,” the release further stated, adding that the CEO of MIAL and chief airport officers at Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Guwahati, Trivandrum and Jaipur will report to Jain. Jain will report to Malay Mahadevia, the CEO of AAHL.
Meanwhile, Zandi will take over as CEO of Non-Aero, AAHL. “Ben has been instrumental in establishing the Adani Airports business and has successfully completed the COD of three airports,” the statement read. Dinaz Madhukar CCSO, AAHL and Ramesh M, CCO, AAHL will report to Zandi.
Prakash Tulsiani, who’s president operations at AAHL, will take over CEO of MIAL from RK Jain, while BVJK Sharma, director of Adani Ports and SEZ, will take over as the CEO of Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL). Zandi will report to Tulsiani.
Prabhat Mahapatra, who currently heads operations at MIAL, will assume the newly created role of head operations at Center of Excellence (CoE). Manoj Katar, the chief operating officer of Dahej port, will take over as the head of operations at the MIAL.
APSEZ’s Director-Ports — Captain BVJK Sharma — will take over as the CEO of Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) from RK Jain. Appointments of BG Gandhi, Manoj Katar, Nirav Shah, Vishnu Jha and Rekha Nair were also announced by AAHL’s CEO Malay Mahadevia.
“We believe this decision will foster collaborative working and agile decision making, which is of paramount importance at this stage of our journey,” the Group added in the statement.
It is worth noting that AAHL became the country’s largest airport operator after picking up a controlling stake in the MIAL), which operates the Mumbai airport, earlier this year. The Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai is the second largest in the country, in terms of passenger traffic.
AAHL will begin the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport next month and complete the financial closure in the next 90 days. This new international airport will be commissioned in 2024.
Earlier, Adani Group also won competitive bids to operate airports at cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.
