The Hindu : Front Page : Letters of Intent issued for airports' modernisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 06, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Letters of Intent issued for airports' modernisation

Special Correspondent

To GMR-Fraport and GVK Industries

NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear on Monday the Reliance Airports Developers Private Limited petition challenging the bidding process for modernisation of airports, the Government on Sunday awarded the contracts for developing two airports.

Letters of Intent (LoI) were issued to GMR-Fraport and GVK Industries-South African Airports for Rs 5,200 crore projects in Delhi and Mumbai respectively.

Representatives of the two consortia were handed over the letters in accordance with the decision of the Union Cabinet, official sources said.

The letters were given in respect of the Delhi airport to GMR-Fraport consortium as it matched the top financial bid for the airport, ousting Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Airport Developers, which has approached the court over the issue. Reliance has sought quashing of the bidding procedure on the grounds of "untenable'' changes in the bid conditions at the last minute.

Another bidder, Sterlite-Macquire-ADP of Anil Agarwal's Vedanta group, has protested against its exclusion from the bids, claiming that its offer was higher than that of GVK industries and that the Government stood to lose Rs 2,000 crore in revenue share.

Sterlite is understood to have written to members of the Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, wondering why it was not qualified for the Mumbai project when its bid for Delhi was considered.

Civil Aviation Ministry sources have maintained that the modernisation process of the two airports would not suffer on account of the petition filed by Reliance in the Delhi High Court.

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