Social media posts claiming Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad has been renamed to Adani Airports, are false.
Several Congress Twitter handles earlier in the week tweeted an image of a signboard that said 'Welcome to Ahmedabad' and had the logo of Adani Airports, to claim that the airport has been renamed.
BOOM was able to independently verify that the picture circulating online shows only one side of the hoarding when one exits the airport. The other side of the hoarding while entering the airport says - 'Welcome to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport' and includes the Adani Airports logo.
The photo is being shared in the backdrop of the ongoing farmers' protests in Delhi against the Central government's Farm Bills. Protesting farmers have claimed that two business families - Adani and Ambanis and their agri and retail companies, will benefit from the farm legislations at the expense of Indian farmers.
Madhya Pradesh Congress on December 13, 2020, tweeted the viral photo with the caption when translated reads, "Ahmedabad Airport Name- Adani Airport from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel ..! "Put a mask on your face until the Modi government sells your kidney""
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Congress MLA Amit Chavda from Gujarat also tweeted the viral photo claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had removed the name of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
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Click here to view, and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad has not been renamed to Adani Airports. The airport is being operated by the Adani Group which was handed over by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on November 7, 2020, however Patel's name has not been dropped as being claimed.
The Adani Group forayed into the civil aviation sector through its airport development and maintenance business. The central government had leased out six airports in the country — Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Guwahati — through public-private partnership (PPP) for 50 years to Adani Group last year after the company had emerged the highest bidder in a global competitive bidding process.
We also accessed visuals from the airport that show that the viral hoarding with - "Welcome to Ahmedabad" and "Adani Airports' comes when one exits the airport and the other side of the hoarding has the name of the airport on it - "Welcome to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport" which is not seen in the viral photo.
These photos clicked on December 18, 2020, clearly show that the airport name has not changed. In the first photo, like in the viral photo, we can see - "Welcome to Ahmedabad" and "Adani Airports' written on the hoarding.
Photo credit: Ritika Jain / BOOM
However, on the other side of the hoarding, the name - "Welcome to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport" can be seen as seen in the second photo below.
Photo taken on December 18, 2020
On looking up the official name of the Ahmedabad Airport on AAI's website we found that its name is still 'Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport'.
Although the claim of the airport being renamed is false, BOOM found that the company's branding is prominent at the airport.
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