Siding with the Sreedharan panel's recommendations on downgrading the Reliance-ASA bid, the committee of secretaries on airport privatisation on Wednesday suggested that either fresh bidding be held to prevent the current process from being scrapped altogether.
The committee of secretaries' report is a strong indication that privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports, as far as the current process is concerned, is getting derailed. The empowered group of ministers will meet on Thursday to take up the committee of secretaries' report.
Government sources said the committee of secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, had agreed with the recommendation of the three-member panel headed by Delhi Metro Managing Director E Sreedharan to downgrade the Reliance-ASA consortium's bid, leaving only one qualified bidder for the two airports.
According to the Sreedharan panel, GMR-Fraport alone had made the cut by scoring more than 80 points out of 100 in the technical evaluation.
Since that left only one eligible bidder and the contention that both airports cannot be given to the same party, the committee of secretaries has suggested that the other five short-listed bidders be asked to submit fresh bids.
The committee of secretaries, however, has suggested that the empowered group of ministers could also consider fresh bids from all the bidders who made it through the screening of their expressions of interest. This will require GMR-Fraport, too, to bid again.
At present, there are six bidders in the fray: Reliance-ASA, GMR-Fraport, DS Construction-Munich, GVK-South African Airport, Essel-TAV and a Sterlite-led consortium.
If fresh bids are invited from every consortium that came through the screening of expressions of interest, then Bharti Enterprises and a Piramal-led consortium, which dropped out after the screening, can also come into the picture.
If the process goes back to the request for proposal stage, the project will be delayed by a year. The current process began 18 months ago.
Meanwhile, the Left Front-United Progressive Alliance's co-ordination committee is scheduled to hold a meeting on Thursday, during which the Left leaders are likely to demand scrapping of the airport privatisation project.