NEW DELHI: The government, worried over its past failures to implement key decisions in the aviation sector such as privatisation of Air India , has formed an empowered group of secretaries to ensure that the privatisation of six airports doesn’t fall through the cracks.“The empowered group of secretaries will ensure that all issues are resolved for a successful completion of the privatisation process,” said a senior government official, who did not want to be identified. The panel will be headed by NITI Aayog CEO, and will have secretaries of aviation, expenditure and economic affairs as its members.The Cabinet had during the first week of November approved privatisation of six airports – Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru – on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis.This was decided after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) failed to award airports in Jaipur and Ahmedabad on operations and management, as they could not find enough takers. Similarly, the aviation ministry also did not find takers for Air India, where the government was trying to sell 74% to a private player.Officials said that the Prime Minister’s Office and NITI Aayog have been concerned over the distress in the aviation sector and believe that the sector, which could have been a sunrise sector, failed to achieve its potential and is in distress with airlines such as Jet Airways reporting financial stress.“The PMO and NITI Aayog are not happy with the sector’s performance and have registered the displeasure over the ministry’s performance. The committee is part of their attempt to ensure that plans are implemented and growth continues in the sector,” said the government official.The government’s focus is on the aviation space, and it has also launched a regional connectivity scheme to subsidise flights to the unserved and underserved parts of the country.But the sector has been in distress due to rising crude prices and falling rupee, which has led to all listed airlines making losses in the second quarter of the current fiscal.The government is discussing a move to reduce the cost of fuel by tax cuts to bring the aviation sector out of this mess. The Centre reduced excise duty on jet fuel to 11% from 14% during October but the respite wasn’t enough for airlines which continued to bleed.