The Hindu Business Line : E-GoM to decide on airports modernisation tomorrow

THE plan for modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports is all set to move ahead with the empowered Group of Ministers (e-GoM) scheduled to meet here on Thursday to take a final view on the bids made for the projects.

This is despite the high-powered Sreedharan committee report recommending that the Reliance bid for participating in the modernisation and restructuring process of the two metro airports be rejected, as it did not meet the stipulated 80 per cent cut-off mark based on a set of technical criteria. The Anil Ambani controlled Reliance had tied up with ASA Mexico to bid for the two metro airports.

The acceptance of the latest report, which was submitted on Tuesday, would leave only the GMR group in the race for modernising the two airports. Earlier, the global advisors to the project had recommended that only GMR and Reliance were eligible to participate in the process as their technical bids were above the laid-down minimum criterion.

The Government had constituted a panel of technical and financial experts headed by Mr Sreedharan, who is the Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, to advise the committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr B.K. Chaturvedi, on the airport modernisation process.

"There is some amount of subjectivity in the Sreedharan Committee report. It decided to evaluate only one of the six bidders that fell short of minimum criterion. However, the final decision on the way forward will be decided by the e-GoM," a senior Government official said.

The e-GoM is headed by the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and includes the Ministers for Finance, Commerce and Civil Aviation.

The various options before the e-GoM include concluding the process by evaluating the financial bids of the two short-listed bidders or seeking fresh technical and financial bids from the five bidders who have failed to meet the minimum stipulated criterion. The five bidders are likely to be given 15 days to submit fresh technical and financial bids in case this route is decided on by the e-GoM, sources indicated.

"There is no question of either the process being scrapped or the Government setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to move the process forward. The Government will meet the January 31 deadline for starting the modernisation and restructuring process at the two metro airports," a senior Government official said.

The Government had received six bids for the restructuring of the Mumbai airport and five for the Delhi airport.

The five bidders for Delhi airport are GMR, which has teamed up with the operators of Frankfurt airport, Fraport; Reliance, which had submitted a bid with ASA Mexico; DS Construction, which had a tie-up with the Munich airport; Macquire in tie-up with Airport de Paris; and the Essel group in association with Turkish airport operator, TAV.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, had a meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, here on Tuesday. Sources indicated that the meeting between the two leaders indicates that the modernisation process was well on track. The Left parties have repeatedly asked the Government to scrap the process and suggested that the Greenfield approach for developing the two airports be examined.

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