Airport upgrade winner to be announced on January 31

Next EGoM meet on metro airport
privatisation on Jan 24

BY A CORRESPONDENT
11th January 2006
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on airport privatisation will meet again on January 24, to decide on the bidders and how to sort out the mess.

Said Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel: "We have asked some clarifications from the Sreedharan committee on its recommendations and when the EGoM meets on Jan 24 we expect to take a decision." He was speaking on the sidelines of the AutoExpo currently on in Delhi.

The last EGoM meeting failed to produce any result. The E Sreedharan panel was asked to explain how it arrived at the final marks.

The government expects to hold the final and most critical meeting on airport privatisation on January 31, and announce the winners on the same day.

Meanwhile, CPIM MP Dipankar Banerjee said that the Civil Aviation ministry had told him that “no relaxation or change in any of the eligibility criteria” was being contemplated, since the process was at a crucial stage.

The Communist parties have called for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) taking over the modernisaton process, to be headed by E Sreedharan. However, this demand seemed unlikely to be met. For this, the whole process of airport modernisation will have to scrapped. Besides, the AAI may find it difficult to mop up the huge resources required to modernise the two metro airports.