Fresh bids likely for airport sale

Committee of secretaries backs Sreedharan.

Siding with the Sreedharan panel recommendations on downgrading the Reliance-ASA bid, the committee of secretaries on airport privatisation today suggested that either fresh bids be invited or the current process be scrapped altogether.

The committee of secretaries' report is a strong indication that the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports, as far as the current process is concerned, is getting derailed. The empowered group of ministers will meet tomorrow to take up the committee of secretaries' report.

Government sources said the committee of secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, had agreed with the recommendation of the three-member panel headed by Delhi Metro Managing Director E Sreedharan to downgrade the Reliance-ASA consortium's bid, leaving only one qualified bidder for the two airports.

According to the Sreedharan panel, GMR-Fraport alone has made the cut by scoring more than 80 points out of 100 in the technical evaluation.

Since that leaves only one eligible bidder and both airports cannot be given to the same party, the committee of secretaries has suggested that the other five short-listed bidders be asked to submit fresh bids.

The committee of secretaries, however, has suggested that the empowered group of ministers could also consider fresh bids by all the bidders who made it through the screening of their expressions of interest. This will require GMR-Fraport, too, to bid again. Or, the process could start all over again from the stage of request for proposal.

At present, there are six bidders in the fray: Reliance-ASA, GMR-Fraport, DS Construction-Munich, GVK-South African Airport, Essel-TAV and a Sterlite-led consortium.

If fresh bids are invited from every consortium that came through the screening of expressions of interest, then Bharti Enterprises and a Piramal-led consortium, which dropped out after the screening, can also come into the picture.

If the process goes back to the request for proposal stage, the project will be delayed by a year. The current process began 18 months ago.

Meanwhile, the Left Front-United Progressive Alliance's co-ordination committee is scheduled to hold a meeting tomorrow, during which the Left leaders are likely to demand scrapping of the airport privatisation project.

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Many voices

Committee of secretaries: Call fresh bids, or scrap

Sreedharan panel: Downgrade Reliance-ASA, call fresh bids

Left front: In its current form, scrap

Finance ministry: Scrap, rather than call fresh bids

Airports Authority of India: Call fresh bids

Planning Commission representative: Call fresh bids