No bid

Any observer of Delhi airport can tell you the long-awaited modernisation process is far from complete. You are still hustled from overheated plane to chilly tarmac to shuddering,slow conveyor belt. All around are temporary walls that inform you,implicitly and explicitly,that the airport is a work in progress. And yet the contractors responsible for the project,GMR,want to start charging flyers an Airport Development Fee,something that it was earlier expected they would not be permitted to do at this stage. Without that,they argue,the Rs 2750 crore shortfall between their projected revenue and costs wont be met.

The details are still not completely clear. Consider the about-face by the law ministry,which earlier said that the concession agreement didnt permit this fee but which now says that the Airports Authority can levy it on the contractors behalf. But the point extends to projects beyond the Delhi and Hyderabad airport modernisation efforts. When an auction is held,it is assumed that all participants are bidding on the same thing,one which isnt changed later. Changing the rules for a winner after it wins is fundamentally unfair. There is no reason to suppose that,on this occasion,GMR under-bid. But what is clear is that it needs to change the rules of the game in a way that other bidders might not have anticipated in their bids. This means that we,as citizens and consumers,may not be getting the deal we deserve.

This is becoming a problem endemic to the way that auctions are conducted in this country,and needs to stop. The way that Indias government and its top companies approach bidding processes has a long way to go before it meets international standards. Yes,we must be pragmatic stalling big projects is the last thing the economy needs. But nobody can be allowed to hold the exchequer to ransom. Nor can India afford to slide into an approach where nobody tells the truth about their costs at bid time. That way lies chaos.