Thursday, September 1 2005 18:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The CPI-M today (Sept 1, 2005) wanted the government to halt the bidding process for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, pending resolution of some "critical" issues like sustainability of other airports that were dependent on these two profit-making ones.

"The government has overlooked several key concerns like sustainability of the other airports, which were till now being largely financed by the major profit earned by these two airports," the party Polit Bureau said in a statement.

The party also asked the government to take note of the observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the matter, saying the modernisation programme at Mumbai airport could "only enhance its technical capability by ten to 15 per cent and in any case will become redundant in addressing growth projections beyond 2012".

It also said the "assurance given earlier by the government to examine the alternative proposal of the Airports Authority of India Employees Joint Forum has also been ignored. "In these circumstances, the Polit Bureau urges the government to halt the present bidding process pending the resolution of these critical issues", the CPI (M) said.