(Reuters) – India’s Tata Sons was selected to be the successful bidder for Air India’s debt-laden state-run carrier, Bloomberg reported Friday.

A ministerial panel accepted an idea from officials to recommend the conglomerate for salt-to-software development. This was in contrast with Ajay Sing’s proposal to Spicejet Ltd promoter.

Tata Sons spokesperson refused to comment. A spokesperson from the finance ministry did not respond immediately to Reuters messages seeking comment. Air India, however, declined comment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for the sale of its whole interest in the airline that is losing money, which was kept afloat by a bailout from 2012.

Officials claim that the government has lost nearly 200 million rupees per day in order to operate its national carrier. This has resulted in losses totaling more than 700 billion rupees (9.53 billion).

A bid to auction the majority of the stake was made almost three years ago, but there were no interested parties. The government had to relax the terms. Due to pandemic, it had extended the deadline several times.