With Maharashtra elections out of the way, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has promised to move quickly on the restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports — setting himself a deadline of March 31, 2005. This was also conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday at a meeting to obtain an overview of the Ministry’s agenda. The Ministry has already shortlisted bidders from whom detailed proposals will be sought. It’s learnt that Videocon, which had entered the fray with Methven as its global partner, is out of the race now because the latter did not have sufficient airport expertise. This leaves nine bidders in contention. The Empowered GoM, set up for restructuring of these two airports, are yet to approve this list. Patel also reportedly conveyed to the Prime Minister his Ministry’s plans to float a separate cabinet note on letting private carriers fly abroad. The Cabinet is expected to take up the issue of wiping away the losses of Vayudut from Indian Airlines on Wednesday. The amount is slightly over Rs 180 crore.
