Friday, January 6 2006 17:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Maintaining that 'conflict of interest' between two shortlisted bidders and the official consultants for Delhi and Mumbai airports' modernisation was a 'solid ground' for Government to dismantle the process, a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader has said that 'desperate' attempts were being made to save it.

Seeking scrapping of the entire bid process, CPI(M) MP Nilotpal Basu said the decision by the empowered Group of Ministers to refer the matter to a Group of Secretaries, despite Left members seeking Prime Minister's intervention on it confirms the suspicion that the emphasis is not on any radical option but on re-doing the calculations and repositioning the evaluation of the consultants whose 'conflict of interests' has so clearly been established.

"In these circumstances, the current exercise must be scrapped in order to ensure minimum credibility and transparency," he said in an article in the latest issue of party organ 'People's Democracy'.

Basu asked the Government to take note of the Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendations to construct two world class airports as greenfield projects as well as the alternate plan submitted by the employees of Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has been reviewed by the AAI itself.

Pointing out that official financial consultant ABN-Amro was the 'joint lead arranger' for two shortlisted bidders GMR and Reliance groups, he said, "As joint lead manager of syndicated loan, a banker acts not only as a financier but also as an advisor and marketer of his client. As the two said clients are among the largest, ABN Amro is sure to hugely benefit by promoting their interests."