The second round of privatising six airports in Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy has been put on the back burner as different arms of the government are debating whether to cap the number of airports an entity can bid for.

While the rules framed by the civil aviation ministry and Airports Authority of India (AAI) allow an entity to bid for all airports, the finance ministry and the cabinet secretariat are pressing for a cap, it is learnt. During the previous privatisation process in 2018 too, the finance ministry wanted a cap on the number of airports a ...