In a shocking report, RTI document shows that the state government spent Rs. 2.3 crores to participate in the tender for the operation of the Thiruvananthapuram airport. The detailes were revealed upon the request of a social worker from Kochi, say report.
As per RTI, The amount was given to various private agencies to ensure Kerala wins the bidding process. While KPMG, an accounting agency received Rs 1,57,18,954 crore a private law firm was paid Rs. 55 lakhs as fees.
The winning bid in the Thiruvananthapuram airport quoted Rs 168 per passenger, KSIDC (Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation) quoted Rs 135 per passenger and third qualifying bidder was at Rs 63 per passenger.
Per passenger fee was the criteria for the bidding process that was conducted in early 2019 for six airports – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. Adani Enterprises turned out to be the highest bidder for these six airports.
Before the bidding process, the Centre and the Kerala government had also agreed that if the KSIDC’s bid comes within the 10 per cent range of the winning bid, it would be awarded the airport, Puri said.
However, since the difference between Adani’s bid and KSIDC’s bid was 19.64 per cent during the bidding process, the former was qualified as the winner.
Discussion about this post