GMR, GVK can bid for six airports' privatisation

New Delhi: The government has allowed airport operators GMR and GVK to bid for the six airports to be awarded in the second phase of airport privatisation.
Recently, leading companies that attended the pre-application discussions had expressed concern as GMR and GVK already had two airports each in their portfolios, after successful bids, the companies might end up operating four airports each and, hence, run a duopoly between them.
The companies had said while a new entity could win only up to two airports and only one among Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad, there was no such bar on GVK/GMR. While GMR operates the airports in Delhi and Hyderabad, GVK manages the ones in Bangalore and Mumbai.
“GMR and GVK can each be awarded a major airport and a minor one, in the event of a successful bid. There were some arguments that they should be excluded. We have decided to allow them to participate in the bidding process,” said a senior government official associated with the tendering process.
Read news in full 30/09/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard