Civil Aviation Secretary Ajai Prasad Friday said the process of privatisation and modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports was a transparent affair.
Refusing to answer a question directly on the issue at an open house discussion on civil aviation organised by the Global Foundation for Civil Aviation and Sustainable Tourism in New Delhi, Prasad said, "We have involved bidders at every stage of the process. Documents were finalised after consulting them. The final decision on the technical evaluation will be decided by the empowered group of ministers on Monday."
Most participants at the discussion were of the view that if the government shortlisted very few players for bids, it would not be in a position to derive maximum value from the process.
Admitting that the process of modernisation of airports was very "tortuous and slow", Prasad said, "The main reason for this is the fact that we are carrying out such an exercise for the first time."
On the delay at busy airports like Delhi and Mumbai, Prasad said the government was taking steps to improve conditions. He added that Delhi would have a parallel runway by 2010, while Mumbai would have a runway exclusively for domestic airlines.
The government had set March 2010 as the deadline for completion of the first phase of the Delhi airport modernisation, he said. "The first phase of the development of Delhi airport must be completed by March 2010, ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Delhi will have the capacity to handle 80 million passengers yearly," he said.
The civil aviation secretary said the ministry had prepared a contingency plan to avoid delays in winter due to fog. "One of the possible steps is rescheduling of flights, which got positive response from the international airlines," he said.
On the shortage of experienced pilots in India following a boom in the aviation sector, Prasad said the ministry was taking certain short-and long-term measures, which included hiring pilots from outside, increasing the strength of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy that trains pilots, to 100, and setting up of another similar institute in Maharasthra. He also expressed concern over high aviation turbine fuel price.
