Mumbai’s iconic Air India Tower put on sale by Modi govt; employees asked to vacate various colonies

Two months after the sale of the national carrier Air India to the Tata Group, the Modi government is planning to sell Air India’s iconic building in Mumbai along with other assets, NH has learnt.

The 23-storey building, known as Air India Tower, on Marine Drive is famous for its beautiful design, mammoth structure and the usage of modern technology.

Recalling his four decades old association with Air India, a Mumbai-based employee told NH that Air India Tower helped the debt-laden erstwhile public company when it was struggling even to pay employee salaries.

Expressing grief at the decision to sell it, the employee termed it “painful and inhuman”.

Another employee said that the building earned over 100 crore per annum as rent in 2018. According to the employee, it is a “milch cow”. Ninety percent of the rent was spent on salaries before the airline was sold to the Tata Group, said the employee.

Apart from the iconic tower, engineering services and ground handling subsidiaries of Air India, vacant plots and other assets have been identified by the government for sale.

As per media reports, the government is expecting proceeds of about Rs 16,000 crore from the sale of such subsidiaries and assets.

NH contacted at least five employees’ unions affiliated with Air India but none of them agreed to speak on the issue “officially.” Incidentally, the leaders of these unions representing employees working in various arms of Air India have been very vocal in the past about various issues

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an employee associated with the Air Corporations Employees Union (ACEU) said, “Change in their attitude is perplexing but no one can do anything as the main company has already been sold out…Monetization plan is being followed ruthlessly”.

There is a sense of helplessness among the employees, said a former union leader associated with Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL).

A former general secretary of ACEU, the largest employees’ union at Air India, said that apart from the sale of assets, the Central government has also asked employees living in Air India colonies to vacate the government flats in the next six months.

Notably, ACEU had filed a petition in the Madras High Court challenging the privatization of Air India in January 2022. The court turned down the plea on March 11.

“On humanitarian grounds, we urged that the retired employees should be allowed to retain their flats in Air India colonies, but the court did not accede,” said the ACEU leader.

“Where will the employees go now after the privatization? The government cannot throw employees out of their houses where they have been living for decades,” said the ACEU leader

The Modi government sold Air India to the Tata Group, along with Air India Express and a 50% stake in the ground handling company, in January this year.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told Lok Sabha on Thursday that Air India and its subsidiaries Air India Express and Alliance Air suffered a total loss of Rs 17,032 crore from April 2020 to December 2021.

The minister stated that the highest loss incurred by Air India was Rs 9,373 crore in 2020-21 and was at Rs 6,927 crore in 2021-22 (up to December 2021).