Sunday, February 5 2006 16:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A day before the Delhi High Court hears the Reliance petition challenging the bidding process for modernisation of airports, the Government today (Feb 5 2006) issued letters of Intent to consortia led by GMR and GVK industries awarding them the contracts for Rs 5,400-crore projects at Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.

Representatives of the two consortia were today handed over the letters informing them about the award of the contracts in accordance with the decision of the Union cabinet on February 1, informed sources said.

The letters, dated February 4, were given to GMR Fraport consortium for Delhi as it matched the top financial bid for the airport, ousting Anil Ambani's Reliance Airport Developers which has gone to court over the issue. Reliance has sought quashing of the bidding procedure on the grounds of 'untenable' changes in the bid conditions.

In the meanwhile, another bidder Sterlite-Macquire- ADP of Anil Agarwal's Vedanta group has protested against its exclusion from the financial bids claiming that its offer was higher than that of GVK industries and that the Government stood to lose Rs 2,000 crore in revenue share.

Sterlite is understood to have written a letter to members of the Empowered Group of Ministers including Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who headed the EGoM, wondering why it was not qualified for Mumbai when its bid for Delhi was considered.