Govt ready to relax norms to woo private players

The idea is to give opportunity to those companies,who may not have developed airports in the past but have the potential to develop it in the future. Earlier,the main criteria for technical qualification was that bidders should have prior experience in either constructing or operating an airport in India or abroad.

With an investment of about Rs 560 crore,the Kushinagar airport is proposed to be constructed as part of the development of an integrated Buddhist circuit which consists of holy places of Buddhist significance in UP,Bihar and Nepal.

However,despite various attempts in the past to convince the private players about the viability of the project,the government has failed to take it forward — inspite of offering viability gap funding to the extent of 20 per cent of the project cost to make it profitable for the developer. Not a single developer came forward to submit bids on February 15,2011. Not ready to give up,the government is now planning to make it open for infrastructure development companies who have enough capital to invest in the project.

Earlier,the developers had to fulfil one of the three basic technical qualification criterion: One,they should have at least one airport in India or abroad for a continuous period of at least two years. Two,they should have commissioned at least one airport in India or abroad with a cost of at least Rs 200 crore. Three,they should have constructed at least one airport in India or abroad with a cost of at least Rs 100 crore.

Big names like GMR,Larsen and Toubro,and Gammon India Ltd had expressed their interest to develop the airport. But,after the initial pre-bid meetings,the government failed to convince them about the viability of the project despite offering about 200 acre land for development on a 90-year lease.

Sources said that the government is also planning to reduce the minimum requirement of financial capacity of the developer,which was earlier required to be net worth of Rs 300 crore in the previous financial year. Project consultant IL&FS are,however,now demanding higher rates for preparing new bid documents.

According to a senior official,the state government is keen on the project despite the hurdles because “the Centre had given the initial no-objection certificate and there is an impression that the state is delaying the project.”