The Hindu Business Line : Pressure piles on Govt over airports modernisation

WITH the empowered Group of Ministers (e-GOM) slated to take a final decision on the modernisation and restructuring of the Delhi and Mumbai airports at its meeting on Tuesday, pressure is mounting on the Government to broad-base the entire process by including some of the bidders left out at the technical evaluation process.

While such a move would suppress the charge of "lack of competition" that would have arisen if only two bidders were short-listed for the airports, indications were available on Monday that due to reported differences within the e-GoM, the Prime Minister's guidance may be sought before making a recommendation to the Union Cabinet.

While the Left parties have asked for a rethink, the Government is also concerned about possibilities of a legal entanglement as one of the bidders, after taking legal opinion from a former Chief Justice, has hinted at the possibility of filing a writ petition in the high court if the process is allowed to go through. Even an expert group set up by the Government to go into the global advisor's recommendation has hinted that there is room to suspect that some of the bidders had been favoured.

The modernisation and restructuring issue is further complicated due to the varying reports from the various committees appointed by the Government over which of the six bidders are in the race.

The short-listing by the global advisors saw only two bidders - GMR and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group - remain in the race. The expert group under Mr E. Sreedharan, which was appointed after the report of the global advisor was ready, saw only the GMR group remaining in the fray. However, a subsequent report by the committee saw all six bidders in contention again.