The Union civil aviation ministry has maintained that there will be no fresh bids for selecting the proposed developer for the Mumbai and Delhi airport modernisation projects.

The final selection that was to be made on 5 December 2005 will now be made by end-December 2005, as earlier reported.

The selection will be based on the technical evaluation conducted by consultants, Airplan of France. The government is hopeful of awarding the contract by end-December 2005 and work beginning in March 2006.

It is learnt that only two bidders have qualified -- GMR-Fraport consortium and the Reliance-ASA (Mexico) consortium -- in the technical evaluation stage. There were six bidders in the fray before Airplan conducted the technical evaluation.

The possibility of re-bidding surfaced when one of the members of the Planning Commission opined that a change be made in the technical criteria that could tantamount to re-bidding. The issue appears to have been resolved and there is consensus among the inter-ministerial group, the empowered group of ministers and the civil aviation ministry.

Also See:

Mumbai-Delhi airport modernisation: Final selection delayed (06-Dec-05)

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