Reliance airport tenders hearing put off

    New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday decided to dispense with various procedural laws to dispose of a petition by Reliance Airports Developers on the airport tenders controversy by February 13. A two judge division bench comprising of the High Court Justice T S Thakur and Justice Sanjeev Khanna had asked all parties to the dispute, including the Union Government, to file their replies, affidavits and counter-affidavits before February 8. According to sources, keeping in the view modernisation plan for Delhi and Mumbai airports, the bench is interested in an early disposal of the case.

    On Sunday, the Centre had issued "letters of intent" to the consortia led by GMR and GVK industries, which were awarded with the Rs 5,400-crore modernisation projects for the Delhi and Mumbai airports respectively. Meanwhile, the GMR-Fraport consortium has deposited the RS 500 crore bond guarantee amount with the Government for Delhi airport modernization. According to sources, the GVK-led consortium, which has been selected for the Mumbai airport, will likely to deposit the same amount some time this week. Reliance had moved the court, challenging the Government's decision to award the modernisation contracts to GMR Fraport for Delhi Airport and GVK ACSA for Mumbai airport. Earlier, both GMR and GVK won bids to modernise Delhi and Mumbai airports, emerging as the top bidder among the four whose financial bids were opened on January 31. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry had awarded the contract for New Delhi airport to a consortium led by GMR group, which has entered into collaboration with German airport operator Fraport. For the Mumbai airport revamp, the bid was won by a group led by GVK Industries Limited and the Airports Company of South Africa. GVK-South African airports, which emerged as the top bidder among the four at Mumbai, offered the Centre a revenue share of 38.7 per cent, followed by GMR at over 33 per cent. Though GMR had the option of matching GVK`s bid for Mumbai, it opted for Delhi matching its earlier bid at 43 per cent with Reliance`s 45.99 per cent and winning the contract on account of being the only bidder to score over 80 per cent marks for technical qualification.

    The Reliance Airport Developers who emerged unsuccessful at both Delhi and Mumbai filed a petition at the Delhi High Court on February 2 challenging the government's decision. It challenged the manner in which the consortium led by it was downgraded resulting in the GMR-Fraport consortium being awarded the contract for Delhi Airport. According to the Reliance Airport Developers, the Centre departed from the tender conditions just two hours before awarding the final bid which was untenable and unconstitutional. Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ajay Prasad, however said: "On our behalf we have maintained full transparency in awarding the bid and are ready to face any legal action." The Union Cabinet also gave its approval to the allocation of the revamp bids - announced by an empowered Group of Ministers on January 31 and the airports are expected to be handed over to the companies within three months. The two airports are estimated to require an investment of up to 200 billion rupees (4.5 billion dollars) over a five-year period to construct much-needed parallel runaways, world-class terminals and shopping facilities. The airports presently have congested waiting areas, a lack of comfortable seating, slow baggage handling and unreliable power supplies, all of which make travel a misery for India's fast- expanding middle class who increasingly take to the air for long-distance journeys.

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