GMR may DIAL court over Noida airport

NEW DELHI: The proposed airport at Greater Noida could become a headache for the government.

This airport, if cleared, would violate the existing cap of 150 km between two airports since the Delhi International Airport (DIAL) is situated less than 70 km away. DIAL is a JV between the Airports Authority of India and GMR Group and sources tell us that GMR could drag this issue to the court.

Its plea? Any new airport coming up in less than 150 km radius means that DIAL is not being allowed level-playing field.  

Not just GMR, even infrastructure experts feel that any sudden change in policy without adequate “compensation” to the developer of an existing airport may prove counter-productive.

“Any reworking of OMDA (Operation, Management and Development Agreement between AAI and GMR) will pose questions on the competitiveness of the original bid to privatise Delhi Airport. Any of the bidders who lost out to GMR at that time could go to court,” said a well known infrastructure analyst.

Despite several attempts, GMR officials remained unavailable for comments on the matter. But official sources confirmed that OMDA could be reworked in case GMR is seen to suffer after the proposal for another airport at Greater Noida is cleared.

The meeting of a Group of Ministers, constituted to consider legal implications of permitting a new airport at Greater Noida, is slated for Thursday. This GoM comprises ministers of science & technology, finance, law and civil aviation.

Any “reworking” of OMDA could well mean a dilution of the revenue percentage AAI is to earn from privatisation of the Delhi Airport - under the current contract, AAI gets 46% revenue from the JV operation.

Another infrastructure analyst said any reworking of contractual agreements should be done with caution. “The government must do everything to uphold sanctity of any contract (such as OMDA),” said Amrit Pandurangi at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In its letter to the government last October, GMR pointed out that “(we had) tendered our bids for expansion and modernisation of Delhi Airport in the bona fide belief that if any other airport within the vicinity of the Delhi IGI Airport were being contemplated, the ministry of civil aviation would have put the bidders to due notice”.

Under the OMDA, GMR retains the right of first refusal in case its bid for developing Greater Noida airport is within 10% of the nearest bid. This “right of first refusal” is also being examined by the GoM.

 b_sindhu@dnaindia.net