“Ahmedabad airport has been renamed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to Adani,” tweeted MP Congress with a photograph of a billboard that says ‘Adani | Airports’. The tweet drew over 3,000 likes and more than 600 retweets.
(Translated from: अहमदाबाद एयरपोर्ट का नाम — सरदार वल्लभभाई पटेल से अडानी एयरपोर्ट हुआ..!)
Gujarat Congress MLA Amit Chavda also shared the image alluding the same.
So did AICC in-charge for Telangana Congress Manickam Tagore.
Misleading claim
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad has not been renamed to ‘Adani Airports’ but the Airport Authority of India (AAI) handed over its operations to the multinational conglomerate on November 6, 2020.
On 6th Nov’20 at 00:00 midnight, #AAI‘s senior officials exchanged Memorandum & handed over Ahmedabad @ahmairport to @AdaniOnline. Sh A.K Verma, APD, AMD exchanged symbolic key in accordance with concession agreement & future development. pic.twitter.com/vKECyC6u49
— Airports Authority of India (@AAI_Official) November 7, 2020
There are no news reports claiming that the name of the airport has been altered. It still reads the same on the AAI website as well.
A video report by The Times of India published on November 7 shows recent visuals of the airport where signboards and hoardings now carry the words ‘Adani | Airports’. However, the name of the airport has not been changed. A signboard visible when passengers enter the airport reads ‘Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport’ in the middle and ‘Adani | Airports’ on the sides.
Adani Airports is a subsidiary of the Adani Group. The banners carry the company logo.
“The central government in February 2019 privatised six major airports of the country — Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati. After a competitive bidding process, the Adani group won the rights to run all of them for 50 years,” reported Livemint.
Adani Airports logo is also present on banners placed at Lucknow airport.
Therefore, ‘Adani’ was added on airport billboards after the company took over the development and maintenance of Ahmedabad airport from AAI. This was falsely projected by Congress and its leaders as the Modi government allowing the corporation to remove ‘Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’ from the airport name.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
