Air India Headquarters Move to Delhi

Monday, 25th February 2013 at 05:18am

After the approval by the board of Air India's proposal on its planned transfer of its headquarters from its current location, the iconic 23-story Nariman Point in Mumbai will soon lose its famous tenant when the flag carrier moves to Delhi.

The building was erected in mid-1970s by Air India as its headquarters and remained so until now. Prior to the merger with Air India, Indian Airlines' headquarters were located in Delhi. The union of the two airlines requires frequent travel of both top executives to and from their respective cities. To limit such frequent movement, the headquarters will now be moved to Delhi. However, Air India won't completely abandon the iconic landmark as the airline decided to keep the upper three floors of the edifice to house the office of its chairman and other auxiliary offices. Its sales and reservation offices may also be retained at the ground floor.

Air India has been holding offices on the building's 12 levels. However, several floors still have empty spaces while some of them are leased to tenants. Some of the airline's vital offices located in the building include the chairman's office, account and medical department, corporate communications, network planning and commercial headquarters. All these offices are also being considered to be relocated somewhere.

The Air India chairman, Rohit Nandan, clarified to the media that Nariman Point building will keep three floors of the building to house a few offices of the airline, including the chairman's office. He also disclosed that the idea of moving its headquarter from Mumbai to Delhi was carefully studied for some time but the board approved it only on February 13. According to another airline executive, all the offices of the directors as well as engineering, commercial department and finance and operation will be transferred to Delhi.

Earlier, Air India was able to clinch a deal with State Bank of India to lease out four floors of the edifice.

The airline is expected to earn around Rs1000 crore by March next year from the proceeds of its five prime properties in both Delhi and Mumbai. These properties include a lot next to Baba Kharak Singh Marg (New Delhi), Sterling Apartments (Mumbai), Air India colony (Kolkata), lot in Sowri Palayam road (Coimbatore) and a lot in Chennai.

By: Pete Lee.