Replying to a question in the House, civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar said that of this, 10.6 per cent shares would be given to Indian Airlines employees to ensure their participation in equity and management while 49 per cent would be held by the government.

He said the government had so far accepted the Kelkar Committee's report on financial and organisational restructuring but other recommendations were still under consideration.

Replying to a question whether employees were being consulted in preparing a package for revamping of the airline, he said, the Kelkar Committee had held four rounds of talks with workers before submitting its reports.

Replying to another supplementary, he said workers' participation at board level would be considered after the process of raising additional equity andrationalisation of routes was completed.

He said the Kelkar Committee had recommended a two-phased financial strategy to make the Indian Airlines operate in a competitive market environment.

Meanwhile, Air India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA) have planned to form a 51:49 joint venture with global giant Abacus to market centralised reservation systems in the country. The partners will apply within four to six weeks to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking its approval for the joint venture.

While Abacus will put-in an initial capital sum for its 49 per cent stake in the joint venture, the two national airlines will not invest any cash in the venture at this stage.

AI and IA will simply offer the assets of the existing Sitar travel marketing agency as their share in the joint venture. The assets of Sitar are currently being valued for this purpose.

Sources in Air India told The Indian Express that though the state-owned airlines plan to pick-up 51 per cent equity, theshareholding pattern is still being debated. There is a possibility that the equity holding will be changed to allow each partner to have equal stake.

"This is because a majority shareholding with the national carriers makes the new company a government-owned concern. The foreign partner is not very comfortable with this idea," sources said.

Abacus' reluctance is explained by the fact that government-owned companies in India are subject to a number of rules and legislations besides being answerable to a score of committees. The new joint venture company will market centralised reservation systems (CRS) to travel agents in India. These software packages permit travel agents and airlines to make computerised reservations from any part of the world.