Bias in airport upgrade deal, Anil tells SC

The Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Airport Developers opened its arguments in the Supreme Court today alleging arbitrariness and discrimination in the allotment of modernisation work of the Delhi and Mumbai airports to two consortia with foreign collaboration. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had approved of the selection and dismissed its petition.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi emphasised that lowering of the bench mark from 80 per cent to 50 per cent was a deliberate move to remove Reliance and give the contract to the two consortia.

He also challenged the competence of the several government committees that had examined the qualification of the parties and the group of ministers that had no expertise in these matters while it downgraded the norms.

GMR, which was the other contender for the bids, had won the contract when the group of ministers lowered the benchmark. Further, it was given a choice between the Delhi and Mumbai airports. It chose Delhi.

However, when it came to Mumbai, the criteria were changed again and Reliance lost in the bid to GVK, the counsel alleged. GVK's score was much lower than Reliance's for the Mumbai bid even after the downgrading, but its financial bid was raised to give the contract to the joint venture, Rohtagi said.

The Delhi airport work was awarded to a consortium led by the GMR group in collaboration with German airport operator Fraport, Eraman Malaysia, state-run Airports Authority of India and infrastructure firm IDFC Ltd.

The contract to revamp Mumbai airport was won by a consortium led by GVK Industries Ltd and Airports Company of South Africa.

Rohtagi pointed out that some 40 airports were in line for modernisation and said that this story should not be repeated in other cases. Therefore, the court should strike down the Delhi and Mumbai awards, especially since the country was aiming at world class airports, he said.

World events like the Commonwealth Games had been scheduled and if the contract was given to companies that had no technical competence, it would bring the country a bad name.

Reliance, the winning companies and the government have to face a Bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S H Kapadia. Additional Solicitor Gopal Subramaniam has justified the award of the contract to the joint venture consortia.

The winning parties have told the court that the Delhi High Court hearings have already delayed the project which has to be completed by 2010, in time for the Commonwealth Games. The arguments will continue tomorrow.

The high court, on April 21, had ruled that the government's action was in no way "discriminatory, illogical or illegal".

It held that the authorities had "absolute discretion to vary the tender requirements or amend the term of request for proposal according to the requirements of the project."