Mumbai, Aug 21 (IANS): The Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Airport Developers Ltd (RADL) has bagged contracts worth a total Rs.63 crore (Rs.630 million) to develop airports at Yavatmal, Nanded, Osmanabad, Latur and Baramati in Maharashtra, according to an official announcement here Friday.

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has been given the green signal to sign the agreements with RADL as part of the government's move to privatise five airports in the state.

The RADL had submitted the highest bid - Rs.270 million (Rs.27 crore) to develop and manage Yavatmal, Nanded and Latur airports. It had also bid Rs.320 million (Rs.36 crore) - the highest, for Baramati and Osmanabad airports, according to an official spokesperson this evening.

The MIDC will also hand over a little more than 600 hectares land to RADL for a 95-year period for the development and maintenance of these five airports.

The move - coming when state assembly elections are round the corner - is considered significant as three of the five airports that will be developed are the home districts of three political stalwarts.

They are: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar (Baramati), Union Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh (Latur) and Chief Minister Ashok Chavan (Nanded).

Earlier this year, the state government had opened the upgraded Latur and Nanded - the latter being a Sikh holy place - airports for launching regular commercial flights connecting Mumbai and other cities.

For the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, this is yet another feather in its cap this week.

Earlier in the week, the Reliance Infrastructure was awarded the prestigious Rs.11,000 crore Mumbai Metro Phase-II by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The project, which will link Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd and is scheduled for completion by 2015, was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil Aug 18.