Poll panel puts on hold modernisation of 6 airports
Secretary, Civil Aviation, Ashok Lavasa, said on Thursday that on the recommendations of the Election Commission, the modernisation of Chennai, Kolkata and four other airports has been put on hold.
The Commission has asked us to put it (airport modernisation) on hold till the process of elections is over. The date for submission of bids will differ till the election process is over, as told by Lavasa to newspersons on the sidelines of the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Modernisation with private participation will also be required for airports of Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Jaipur.
When the Government invited pre-qualification bids from private parties for managing these airports by issuing request for qualification (RFQs) in September last year ,the modernisation process began.
Before the model code of conduct came into force the government was hoping to complete the exercise but it was unable to move as even the RFQ stage was not reached. Interest was substantial for the project which includes at least nine parties, including Fraport-Saudi Arabia, GMR Airports, IL&FS Transportation Network, Celebi Havacilk Holdings, GVK, Sahara, Cochin International Airport, Essar Projects and Essel Infra projects eager on participating in the Chennai programme.
Green nod on web
From July 1, Anil Swarup, Additional Secretary and Chairman, Project Monitoring Group (PMG) Cabinet Secretariat said in a meeting that applications for forest and environment clearance for all projects sent to the Government would be moved to the web.
“Each industry will be able to track these applications,” he said, adding that the Mines Ministry would also digitalise and put it on the web.
Source: Hindu Business Line
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