Unique Airports threatens to quit BIAL

Unique Airports, the company that runs the Zurich airport and member of the Siemens-L&T consortium that is a 74% partner in the Bangalore International Airport project has threatened to quit citing interminable delays according to an article published in Businessworld.

That would almost sound the death knell for the project as the entire process of reconstituting the consortium and perhaps even calling for new bids would result in delays that would make the project unviable. Earlier, in 1999, the withdrawal of the Tata-Singapore Airport consortium over similar red-tape induced delays had resulted in a fresh bidding process that led to the selection of the Siemens-L&T consortium to execute the project.

I hope the project can kick-off of before the end of the year.