The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai, Delhi airports revamp — Ministerial group's report to be ready next week

By next week, the report of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on the 10 parties that have been shortlisted for participating in the bidding process is to be forwarded to the four-member empowered Group of Ministers (e-GoM).

Official sources, while confirming that the IMG report would be sent to the e-GoM next week, noted that it was still too early to say whether a formal meeting would be held. Sources indicated that there was a possibility of a formal meeting of the e-GoM not being held if no substantive changes were to be made in the recommendations forwarded by the IMG.

The e-GoM is headed by the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and includes the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel and the Law Minister, Mr H.R. Bhardwaj.

When contacted, Mr Patel confirmed that the IMG report was likely to be forwarded to the e-GoM next week. But despite some ambiguity on whether there would be any meeting of the e-GoM, officials were categorical in saying that it would be incorrect to say that the process for modernisation of the two metro airports had been delayed.

"The process is on track and will be completed as per the laid down schedule which has been announced earlier," officials said.

Questioned on the procedure laid down to shortlist bidders in the initial round, officials said that it was likely that any one of the bidders meeting even two of the laid down criterion, including that of net worth, were likely to clear the initial screening.

The Government's plan to modernise the two metro airports saw some leading names putting in their `expression of interest' (EoI) to participate in the process. While Bharti Enterprises Private Ltd has tied up with Singapore Changi Enterprise Pte Ltd, Videocon International Ltd has tied up with Methven Corporation and GMR Infrastructure Ltd has tied up with Fraport AG.