New Delhi, March 10 :     Civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar has written a letter to Karnataka chief minister J.H. Patel, asking the state government to fix a time frame for concluding negotiations with the Tata group on the international airport at Devenhalli. Kumar also said his ministry was preparing a draft Cabinet note for divesting the government stake in Air-India by selling off a large chunk of holding to a strategic partner. ?The crux of the matter is whether we should also allow global players to bid. The Cabinet has to take a decision on this,? he said. ?It will be a big divestment. Till now we have raised only about Rs 12,000 crore through the divestment route since liberalisation began. This company is worth more than that.? According to Kumar, his ministry is in talks with the finance ministry seeking the release of the remaining portion of Rs 125 crore promised to Indian Airlines last year and a further ?Rs 200 crore as soft loans and Rs 150 crore as a one time compensation? for losses suffered by the domestic carrier due to grounding of its fleet of Airbuses in the 1980s. The civil aviation minister told this correspondent, ?My letter to Patil was in response to a missive from the chief minister where he had said that to facilitate a pre-feasibility study by the Tatas for the airport project he needs the views of the ministry on landing and parking fees, status of the HAL airport and the issue of landing rights. My point is that we have already covered these grounds. We have given a green signal for the Devenhalli airport. Final talks should be held without loss of time,? he added. The Tatas had earlier walked out of the Rs 1,300-crore project stating that unless the deadlock on various issues, such as landing and parking fees, was resolved they could not continue with the project. Asked whether the project would be re-tendered as the time span of the earlier understanding with the Tatas had lapsed, Kumar said, ?That is for the Karnataka government to decide? as it had floated the tender for the airport. On Air-India?s divestment, Kumar said the selloff panel had recommended a 40 per cent sale to a strategic partner and a 20 per cent stock sale to employees and financial institutions. He indicated that the ministry would work on this formula.