Contract issued for airport modernisation

      New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday issued "letters of intent" to the consortia led by GMR and GVK industries, which were awarded with the Rs 5,400-crore modernisation projects for the Delhi and Mumbai airports recently. According to sources, the Centre handed over the letters to the representatives of the consortia informing them about the contracts in accordance with the decision taken by the Union Cabinet on February 1.

      Earlier, GMR and GVK won bids to modernise Delhi and Mumbai airports, emerging as the top bidder among the four whose financial bids were opened on January 31. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry had awarded the contract for New Delhi airport to a consortium led by GMR group, which has entered into collaboration with German airport operator Fraport. For the Mumbai airport revamp, the bid was won by a group led by GVK Industries Limited and the Airports Company of South Africa. Incidentally, the Centre issued the "letter of intent" only a day ahead of the Delhi High Court's hearing of the petition challenging the bidding process by the Anil Ambani owned Reliance Airport Developers. GVK-South African airports, which emerged as the top bidder among the four at Mumbai, offered the Centre a revenue share of 38.7 per cent, followed by GMR at over 33 per cent. Though GMR had the option of matching GVK`s bid for Mumbai, it opted for Delhi matching its earlier bid at 43 per cent with Reliance`s 45.99 per cent and winning the contract on account of being the only bidder to score over 80 per cent marks for technical qualification.

    The Reliance Airport Developers who emerged unsuccessful at both Delhi and Mumbai filed a petition at the Delhi High Court on February 2 challenging the government's decision. In its petition, Reliance Airport Developers challenged the manner in which the consortium led by it was downgraded resulting in GMR-Fraport consortium being awarded the contract for Delhi Airport. According to the Reliance Airport Developers, the Centre departed from the tender conditions just two hours before awarding the final bid which was untenable and unconstitutional. Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ajay Prasad, however said: "On our behalf we have maintained full transparency in awarding the bid and are ready to face any legal action." The Union Cabinet also gave its approval to the allocation of the revamp bids - announced by an empowered Group of Ministers on January 31 and the airports are expected to be handed over to the companies within three months.

     Protesting to the privatisation of airports, the employees of the Airports Authority of India began strike at the Delhi and Mumbai Airports which continues for the four days till it was called off after an announced by convener of the Airport Authority of India Employees Joint Forum, MK Ghosal, at a gathering of the striking workers in the premises of the Delhi domestic airport. The two airports are estimated to require an investment of up to 200 billion rupees (4.5 billion dollars) over a five-year period to construct much-needed parallel runaways, world-class terminals and shopping facilities. The airports have congested waiting areas, a lack of comfortable seating, slow baggage handling and unreliable power supplies, all of which make travel a misery for India's fast-expanding middle class who increasingly take to the air for long-distance journeys.

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