Expert panel on airport revamp submits report

According to sources, the report was submitted to Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi today. Other members of the committee— including Member (Secretary) Planning Commission R R Shah, Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad and Economic Affairs Secretary A K Jha—were still examining the contents.

However, sources said, the committee plans to abide by the January 10 deadline given by the Empowered Group of Ministers for this purpose. The EGOM had met last on December 23 and formed the committee in the backdrop of differences over technical evaluation within the Inter-Ministerial Group, which comprises top officials from the Finance Ministry, the Planning Commission, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Law Ministry.

The principal area of difference is the marking on the subjective criteria in the evaluation matrix. Only two bidders have qualified in this evaluation where the benchmark was kept at 80 per cent. But given that one of the bidders barely crosses the benchmark, marking on subjective criteria has become a ticklish issue. No single bidder can be given both airports. The sub-committee of experts under Sreedharan was set up to examine the manner in which the technical evaluation had been conducted.

Of the nine bidders, six had qualified for Mumbai and five for Delhi in the final screening. Only two have qualified for both the airports. More importantly, experts feel that any situation of a re-bid may actually lower investor interest.