2 airport bidders put conditions

Govt files caveat in courts to prevent abrupt stay orders.

Two of the six bids received for the project to privatise the Delhi and Mumbai airports were today discovered to be "conditional" even as the government filed a caveat in the courts to prevent any entity from obtaining an abrupt stay order against the modernisation initiative.

"The caveat has specified that the Airports Authority of India and the government should be given 48 hours' notice to respond to any of the cases challenging the privatisation process and the government's decisions on it," said a civil aviation ministry official.

This move by the government will prevent any of the six companies that have bid for the project, and the two consortia, which have pulled out of the process in the last minute, to take legal recourse without hearing the government's standpoint.

The government today began evaluating the technical bids submitted by the six consortia led by Reliance, Essel, Sterlite, DS Construction, GMR and GVK.

Sources said two of the bidders had placed certain conditions to meet the requirements specified by the government.

Civil aviation ministry officials said bids with conditions might not be entertained by the government during the evaluation stage.

"Some of the bids have come in with certain conditions, including on meeting investment norms," said a source close to the evaluation process.

The conditions laid down by the government want companies bagging the Delhi airport contract to invest Rs 2,800 crore in the first five years, while for the Mumbai airport, the minimum investment in the first five years have to be Rs 2, 600 crore.

The government is expected to complete the evaluation of the technical bids in the next four to six weeks. After this, the financial bids of companies that have cleared the technical evaluation will be opened to finalise the modernisation contract. The winner is expected to be declared by the end of this calendar year.