"We are exploring and trying to select a site for another airport at Mumbai, which will be some distance away from the city", Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad said on the sidelines of the Aerodrome India 2005, an international exhibition and seminar, which commenced in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Mumbai would get a new, large international airport and two-three sites have been identified for the greenfield project, for which a separate bid would be invited, he said.
Talking about bids, Prasad categorically ruled out inviting rebids for the Mumbai and Delhi airports modernisation project.
"There is no rebidding at all", he said, adding that consultants appointed by the government have completed technical evaluation of the bids. The Inter-Ministerial Group, which Prasad heads, is looking at the evaluation done by consultants to ensure that it has been done properly and all the evaluation criteria have been uniformly and equitably applied to all the bids, he said.
"We hope to complete the process by next week or so", Prasad said. "And after that we will be making recommendations to the empowered group of ministers on the shortlisting of technically qualified bids. We expect the (entire bidding) process to be completed by the end of December".
He said there are six bids for the modernisation of Mumbai airport and five for Delhi. On the new airport for Mumbai, he said aeronautical studies were being carried out by international aviation organisations on the suitability of sites.
No time-frame can be set for inviting bids for this new airport, as it could be called only after the organisations complete the "thorough and detailed" studies, he said.
Modernisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports, which has been estimated to cost Rs 5,400 crore (Rs 54 billion), might eventually cost Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) to Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) each, said Prasad.