The tender issued in April was cancelled after some airlines raised objections to the non-fulfilment of all criteria by competing carriers, the sources said, adding a fresh tender was issued on Monday asking airlines to submit their bids by July 24.
A total of 1,25,000 Indian pilgrims would be flown to and from Mecca and Medina from 21 cities this year.
The sources said Saudi Arabian Airlines, another Saudi carrier National Air Services (NAS), Air India, SpiceJet and Religare Aviation had submitted their bids in response to Civil Aviation Ministry's tender for 2012 Haj operations, which was issued in April.
It was found by the Haj Air Travel Committee (HATC) that Saudi Airlines and SpiceJet had not submitted the mandatorily- required 'no objection certificate' (NOC) from their respective aviation regulators -- DGCA or GACA (for Saudi Airlines).
The two carriers submitted the NOCs after the deadline. This led the other competing carriers to raise objections and saying that SpiceJet and Saudi had flouted the tender conditions, the sources said.
"The objections were then placed before the competent authority, which evaluated them in terms of the government's financial rules and guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission. The competent authority thereafter decided to cancel the tender and issue a new one," the sources said.
Religare Aviation was declared ineligible as another condition was that the carrier has to be a designated airline, they said. (More)
