NEW DELHI, JANUARY 31 In the face of political resistance from within and outside, the Government today opened the financial bids for Delhi and Mumbai airports and decided to file caveats tomorrow in the Supreme Court and the High Courts in Delhi and Mumbai so that the process is not hijacked through legal action.

Sixteen months after the NDA government decided to modernise these two airports through the joint-venture route with 74 per cent private equity, the UPA government selected GMR-Fraport and GVK-ACSA (South Africa) for Delhi and Mumbai respectively. The decision goes to the Cabinet for approval tomorrow.

It’s learnt that Reliance-ASA Mexico, out of the race after GMR-Fraport (Frankfurt) exercised its first right of refusal today, has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry claiming that the process followed is not ‘‘tenable.’’ Stopping short of threatening legal action, sources said, it raised questions of law and constitution.

A caveat is usually filed in anticipation of legal action, where the court is urged to listen to other side before passing an order. In this case, the Government, through the Airports Authority of India, will seek to be heard by the court in case a petition is filed challenging the Delhi and Mumbai modernisation process.

More importantly, the government was able to keep to its January 31 deadline for selecting the private consortia through a process that got tangled in controversy in the past month.

  What has to be in place before 2008  

DELHI (Approx cost: Rs 2800 crore) • New parallel runway and associated parallel taxiways • High speed exit taxiways and cross link taxiways • Satellite rescue and fire station • New landside road to international and domestic complex • New elevated terminal (international) front road for departure and on ground level for arrival. Existing elevated road to be demolished

MUMBAI (Rs 2400 crore) • New domestic terminal • International terminal expansion • New high speed exit taxiways • International cargo terminal • International car park expansion l New access road to international terminal

But since GMR was the only bidder to have scored above 80 per cent in both rounds of technical evaluation (Airplan and the Sreedharan panel), the Empowered Group of Ministers decided to give it a chance to match the best bid.

GMR, which was also in second spot behind GVK at Mumbai, decided to go for Delhi and matched the Reliance bid.

This cleared the path for GVK which bagged Mumbai quoting a revenue share of 38.7 per cent. Both selected bidders have proposed to absorb 60 per cent AAI employees, which is 20 per cent more than what the government had kept as minimum absorption.

Plus, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said his ministry will continue to ‘‘encourage’’ the two consortia to absorb more employees in the future.

From now on, it will take up to anything between three to six months before the airports are transferred to the two joint venture companies. The operation, maintenance and development agreement (OMDA) is the key document that has to be finalised.

The agreements which have to be signed:

• Shareholders Agreement

• Land Lease Agreement (30 years, extendable on performance by another 30 years)

• State Support Agreement

• Substitution Agreement

OMDA becomes effective only after these are signed. Before this, AAI has to register two companies under the existing names to begin talks. Both consortia will have to pledge Rs 150 crore upfront.

THE NEW HANDS  

For Delhi, GMR-Fraport • Fraport: Owner, operator of Germany’s Frankfurt International Airport (below), Peru’s Lima Airport, Turkey’s Antalya International Terminal and five other international airports • Involved in building, management, consulting, personnel training, ground handling in Athens, Vienna, Hong Kong, Brussels and Shanghai • GMR Group: Already cleared to build, own and operate the Hyderabad International Airport For Mumbai, GVK-Airports Company South Africa • ACSA: Largest airports authority in Africa, owns and operates South Africa’s nine principal airports, including Johannesburg (top), Cape Town and Durban • Has extensive experience in managing - from the smallest to Johannesburg International Airport, which is larger than Mumbai and Delhi airports • GVK Industries: Implemented core infrastructure projects from Nagarjunasagar Dam to the six-lane Jaipur-Kishengarh expressway