Fresh bid to sell Air India

The government is planning to invite preliminary bids for100 per cent stake sale in Air India next month and already some entities haveexpressed interest in the national carrier, sources said.

The airline is sitting on a debt pile of around Rs 58,000crore, besides huge accumulated losses running into thousands of crores. Someentities have already expressed interest in buying Air India, the sources said,adding the Expression of Interest (EoI) document is being given the finaltouches. EoI inviting bids for 100 per cent stake sale are likely to be floatedeither this month-end or next month, they added.

Bidding for the national carrier will be carried out througha newly developed e-bidding system. Last week, Civil Aviation Secretary PradeepSingh Kharola took a review meeting of Air India ahead of the airline's boardmeet, which scheduled to be held on October 22 for clearing the consolidatedaccount statement for the fiscal ended March 2019.