The second attempt of the Narendra Modi government to divest Air India will officially kick start this Thursday as the panel on the matter will hold its first meeting.

On Wednesday a review meeting to sell the national carrier was held at the finance ministry and Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed reporters later that the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism or the panel formed for the airline’s divestment will hold its first meeting tomorrow.

AISAM, which was headed by the finance minister in the first term of the Modi government, is being headed by Home Minister Amit Shah in the second term. AISAM or Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism, is a panel which was formed last year to oversee the disinvestment of the national carrier.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri are other ministers on the panel among others.

This is the second attempt of the Narendra Modi government to sell Air India. Last year, the government had decided to offload 74 percent stake in the airline but had got no takers, largely because many private players hesitated to be in a joint venture with the government. As a result, this time the government has decided to for complete privatisation this time.

It is expected that in an attempt to garner more interest for Air India, the government may hive off more debt from the balance sheet of the airline, CNBC-TV18 reported earlier this month quoting sources.

It is important to note here that the government has already decided to transfer around Rs 29,464 crore of Air India's debt into a special purpose vehicle. While the formalities are yet to be complete, the decision has been taken.

"The fresh round of discussion is to examine whether additional debt, over and above this figure (Rs 29,464 crore) can be removed and to what extent can the debt be hived off," one of the people aware of the developed said.

As per the provisional figures of FY 2018-19, the total debt of Air India Ltd as on March 31, 2019, is Rs 58,351.93 crore.