Sunday, January 15 2006 11:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A quick bid among pre-qualified bidders for the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports is understood to have been recommended by the experts panel headed by Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, which has also maintained that top class airport developers have been left out from the process.

The Sreedharan Committee, which was appointed by the Committee of Secretaries to evaluate the technical bids of short listed bidders, is learnt to have pointed out that a full fledged re-bidding would derail the entire process and take very long to conclude.

Referring to the method adopted by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in case of major highway projects in Rajasthan, the experts group is learnt to have told the government that same process of re-bidding among short listed bidders should be adopted, as it would be not only be legally sustainable but financially beneficial also.

The benefits of such a re-bid process would offer several advantages, including allowing the eight short listed bidders to regroup and engage top-class airport partners, the panel is understood to have suggested and added that it could also clean up the public controversy associated with the bid process.

It is learnt to have said that the re-bid process could be completed in eight weeks.

The empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) had last week sought more clarifications from the Sreedharan Committee on certain issues it had raised.

The Sreedharan panel is also understood to have said that a delay of another one or two months would not matter if it helped in awarding the contracts for the two major metro airports on a sound footing.

The committee said the opportunity thrown up by a quick re-bid should also be used to rectify certain infirmities, which have been identified. The parameters could also be simplified.

The panel also seems to have suggested that the Committee of Secretaries should take a view of the fact that five of the seven members of the Inter-Ministerial Group did not endorse the recommendations of the consultants appointed for the process.

Observing that the government has landed into a situation of a single-bidder scenario with the consultants selecting two bidders to be granted one airport each, it said this was compounded by the fact that of all airport operators the world over, ASA Mexico was chosen through technical evaluation and not by competition.

With top-class players in airport development having been missed, it is learnt to have pointed out that the incentive structure suggested did not promote aeronautical development, which was the core of airport infrastructure.