Airport: Talks soon with Siemens consortium

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JUNE 25. The State Cabinet at its meeting here on Monday decided to negotiate with a consortium consisting of Siemens, Zurich Airport and Larsen & Toubro, as a joint venture partner to build the proposed Bangalore international airport.

The other consortium which came up for consideration as a possible joint venture partner was Hochtief and Dusseldorf Airport from Germany.

However, there is no finality about selecting the partner for the prestigious project. The Cabinet only ``authorised negotiations'' with one of the two bidders on the four key issues of optimising the project cost, appropriate State support, the shareholders' agreement and the airport development agreement.

``The State Cabinet will again consider the results of the negotiations relating to issues... and give its final approval thereafter.'' However, it hailed the decision as an important milestone in the realisation of the vital infrastructure project.

Briefing presspersons on the Cabinet meeting, the Minister of State for Information, Prof. B.K.Chandrashekar, said that the selection of Siemens, Zurich Airport and Larsen & Toubro consortium was based on the evaluation of the proposals from the two bidders carried out by the Airport Authority of India (Mr. Veera Subramaniam and Mr. Eric Mal) and an American specialist in airport design, Mr. Robert Wadel.

There was also before the Cabinet the report on the airport development plan. The Cabinet opted for the Siemens consortium based on the considerations of equity partnership by the State Government and also support from the State. ``Siemens was for less State support,'' and that was one of the bases for selection.

The Siemens consortium envisaged the construction of an airport at a cost of Rs.1,180 crores ($ 251 million) with an initial capacity of 3.7 million passengers and 1.4 lakh tonnes of cargo. Whereas the Hochtief consortium placed the project cost at Rs.1,487 crores ($ 321 million). The Siemens proposal envisaged a State support of Rs.413 crores as against Rs.611 crores expected by Hochtief.

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