The Hindu Business Line : e-GoM seeks clarifications from Sreedharan panel

THE empowered Group of Ministers (e-GoM) that met here on Thursday failed to reach a decision on awarding the contract for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Briefing newspersons after the meeting, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, said the e-GoM has sought certain "clarifications" from the high-powered technical and financial committee headed by Mr E. Sreedharan. The Minister, however, refused to specify on what issues clarifications were being sought.

"The committee will report back soon. We are still on track for meeting the January 31 deadline set earlier for awarding the contracts for the two metro airports," Mr Patel said.

The Sreedharan committee had, in its report, recommended that the Reliance bid for participating in the modernisation and restructuring process 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 Sreedharan committee report, in effect, means that only the GMR group remains in the race for the modernising project. The committee was appointed to assist the Cabinet Secretary submit a report to the e-GoM on how to move the modernisation process forward.

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.

When the modernisation process started, late last year, 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.

More Stories on : Modernisation | Infrastructure

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Modernisation of airports by AAI will be okay, says Left

e-GoM seeks clarifications from Sreedharan panel

Emirates to launch Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai sector flight from Feb 1

Haldia dock handles record traffic in Apr-Dec

Cochin Port staff for dispensing with cargo handling pools

New Jetty

Tool to track BPO transport fleet