Two foreign firms have pulled out of bidding for India's biggest airports in Mumbai and New Delhi just before a deadline on Wednesday for submission of proposals to run the airports under the government's privatisation plans.
The Mumbai Airport Partners Consortium, comprising Hochtief Airport GmbH, Piramal Holdings Ltd and Larsen & Toubro Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd, said late on Tuesday it would not submit a bid for the Mumbai airport.
"This decision has arisen due to the withdrawal by Hochtief ... citing certain conditions included in the revised transaction documents," L&T said in a statement, without saying what the conditions were.
L&T Infrastructure and Piramal Holdings will still participate in the bid process and have requested an extension of the deadline, L&T said.
Earlier this week, Bharti Enterprises said it would be unable to participate in the bid for the New Delhi airport as its partner, Singapore's Changi Airport, had pulled out saying it was not confident about meeting some conditions set in the tender.
Bharti also did not specify what the conditions were.
Local media reports said Changi and Hochtief pulled out because the government had introduced a clause that said if certain targets on handling of passengers and aircraft were not met, the foreign operator would attract steep penalties.
Wednesday is the deadline for submitting technical and financial bids and the Indian government is looking to award the contracts for the two airports by the end of the year.
Other companies in the fray include Germany's Fraport AG, Flughafen Zurich and Aeroports de Paris with Sterlite Infrastructure, besides India's Essel Group and Videocon Industries
India, Asia's third-largest economy, is trying to upgrade its shabby, overburdened airports to international standards.
The plan includes building a new international terminal at New Delhi and a domestic terminal in Mumbai at a cost of more than $800 million.
The government aims to set up two joint venture companies to hold the leases to operate the two airports and is offering 74 percent stakes in them. Foreign firms can hold up to 49 percent, while private Indian companies must hold at least 25 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.