REL, L&T bid for Amritsar airport

Singapore's Changi Airports International, Fraport, owner of the Frankfurt airport, Larsen & Toubro and 20 other companies have bid for the development of an international airport in Amritsar, Punjab, under a partnership plan.

The bids were submitted by Larsen & Toubro, India's biggest engineering company, Reliance Energy, owned by Anil Ambani, and others will be evaluated today, the government said on its website.

Other bidders include GMR Infrastructure, the operator of New Delhi airport, IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects and Unitech, the government said in the statement.

The country is seeking to modernise 35 airports in smaller cities by 2010, of which building and allied facilities in 25 airports will be developed in partnership with non-state companies.

The first two airports under the category are Amritsar and Udaipur, according to the statement.

The government sold stake in the New Delhi and Mumbai airports to private and foreign companies in 2006.