Two of the six bids received for the project to privatise the Delhi and Mumbai airports on 22 September 2005 were discovered to be "conditional" even as the government filed a caveat in the courts to prevent any entity from obtaining an abrupt stay order against the modernisation initiative.

The caveat has specified that the Airports Authority of India and the government should be given 48 hours notice to respond to any of the cases challenging the privatisation process and the government's decisions on it.

This move by the government will prevent any of the six companies that have bid for the project, and the two consortia, which have pulled out of the process in the last minute, to take legal recourse without hearing the government's standpoint.

The government on 22 September 2005 began evaluating the technical bids submitted by the six consortia led by Reliance, Essel, Sterlite, DS Construction, GMR and GVK.

The government is expected to complete the evaluation of the technical bids in the next four to six weeks. After this, the financial bids of companies that have cleared the technical evaluation will be opened to finalise the modernisation contract. The winner is expected to be declared by December 2005.

Also See:

Mumbai-Delhi airport modernisation: Six submit bids on final day (15-Sep-05)

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