Maytas, Srei bid for tier II city airports

Construction and infrastructure development company Maytas Infra Ltd and a consortium led by Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd (SREI) are the only two companies to have submitted bids for constructing airports in Shimoga and Gulbarga.

The Karnataka government had earlier identified four cities "" Hassan, Shimoga, Gulbarga and Bijapur "" to develop low-cost airports. Bangalore-based Jupiter Aviation, promoted by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has bagged the contract for Hassan.

However, according to Karnataka's infrastructure development secretary VP Baligar, only two bids have been received so far, for Shimoga and Gulbarga. Meanwhile, Bijapur has received none.

"Perhaps companies consider it unviable to build an airport there. We may float tenders again for Bijapur soon," Baligar told Business Standard.

He added that they were "currently evaluating the technical bids submitted by the two companies and will evaluate the financial bids soon".

The Karnataka government had earlier called for tenders to build airports in these cities, for under Rs 30 crore. The land would be leased out to the company for a 30-year period to develop the airports and commercial complexes around it.

Maytas and Srei are executing several infrastructure projects in Andhra Pradesh.