42 aerobridges in airports across the nation

NEW DELHI: Like most aviation contracts a new proposal to award a bid for 42 aerobridges in airports across the nation has developed into a new controversy and is all set to intensify further over the next couple of weeks.

Of ThyseenKrupp and CIMC TianDa, which are in the final leg of the contract, the latter a Chinese government-owned company, has been recently disqualified by the home ministry owing to security reasons. This is apparently because a lot of airports are located in hyper-sensitive areas. TianDa recently approached the Supreme Court after their plea questioning the government decision was struck down by the Delhi High Court.

That is known. What is not, as aviation ministry officials told ET, is the fact that a US court has already blacklisted them for violation of patent rights of their one-time manufacturing partner — FMC Jetway of US.

In a letter addressed to aviation minister Praful Patel, FMC Technologies has apprised him of the US court order with a plea to “recognising and enforcing an international arbitration award issued in Singapore under Uncitral rules prohibiting TianDa from using certain FMC designs in boarding bridges. While this award does not prevent TianDa from selling passenger boarding bridges (PBBs), it does prohibit TianDa from selling PBBs that incorporate any one or more of the specific FMC design elements.”

FMC has gone ahead to add that it has learnt that the Cochin International Airport is using the Chinese PBBs. In the light of that it has been seeking government permission for a while to inspect the PBBs at the airport. Despite repeated letters over the last year or so they have not been given permission to inspect the PBBs.

As far as the bids of the two companies are concerned, Thyssen Krupp has bid Rs 149 crore for the deal. The bid for the Chinese company is not known as their bid has not been opened by Airports Authority of India since they were already disqualified by the home ministry order. Officials therefore question as to how a CPM leader, in a note to PM Manmohan Singh, has stated that the Chinese company was the lowest bidder. The Left leader is learnt to have written to the PM seeking clarification as to why the Chinese company was disqualified on security grounds.

According to official sources, the Airports Authority of India would now go ahead with negotiations with the European company to bring down their order. They hope to place the order in the next month or so unless things again go into a tailspin.

The aerobridge contract itself has been on the horizon for long. It was first conceived around ’02 but it was scrapped later as the government was said to not have budgetary funds during that time. It was later resurrected again in November ‘05.