No decision at GoM meet, airport plans wait

Today’s meeting was expected to give final approval and shape to the details required before requests for proposal (RFPs) are sent to nine consortia bidding to partner the Airports Authority of India both technically and financially in modernising the airports at the two metros.

The other members of the GoM today were Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. The potential bidders for the projects include Bharti Enterprises, Larsen & Toubro, DLF, Reliance, GVK Industries and Videocon.

After more than an hour in the Defence Minister’s South Block room, Patel said: ‘‘Several issues were discussed today, but for want of time, the meeting was inconclusive. The Defence Minister had to leave to attend another engagement. But we will be reconvening very shortly to address the unresolved issues. There were no final decisions.’’

Patel did not say if the next meeting would take place before the Union Budget on February 28. He was not willing to disclose which parts of the document were left unresolved at the end of the meeting.

The document under scrutiny by the GoM today is understood to have listed the general and specific requirements on the civil side of the Mumbai and Delhi airports, and additional tasks like clearance of slums to expand Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. Once the RFPs are issued, the potential partners to the AAI will be shortlisted.