Decision due on Bangalore airport
01 MAY 2001
A German-led consortium and a Swiss-led team have submitted detailed feasibility reports to build an international airport at Bangalore, India's technology capital, an economic daily said.
India's Karnataka state, where Bangalore is located, has shortlisted German construction group Hochtief AG and Swiss airport operator Unique Zurich Airport for a 74 percent stake in the long-delayed project.
"We received documents from both the bidders. The evaluation will start now and the final player will be decided by June-end," the Business Line newspaper quoted a special officer for the International Airport Project as saying.
The Hochtief team includes Dusseldorf Airport while the Unique Zurich Airport bid is backed by German electronics and engineering group Siemens and Indian engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro. The estimated Rs10-billion ($213.58 million) airport is due to begin operations in 2004 and is expected to handle five million passengers annually.
$2bn Kazakh plan for road system
Almaty: Kazakhstan is planning to allocate $2 billion over the next 10-15 years for the repair and construction of its road system, Kazakh deputy transport and communications minister Vadim Zverkov said.
Part of the funds will come from the budget and the remainder will be borrowed from international financial organizations, Zverkov said. Each road development project in Kazakhstan is estimated to cost from $80 million to $200 million, depending on complexity and the length of the stretch of the road involved.
Zverkov went on to say that Kazakhstan's priority is the China stretch of the Eurasian transport corridor, which begins at the port of Lianyungang and runs across China, Kazakhstan and Russia to Belarus and Poland.
Enron to hold Dabhol stake
Houston: Enron Corporation of the US has no immediate plans to sell its stake in the troubled $2.9 billion Dabhol power project in western India, the energy giant's chairman said. Enron has said in the past that it is unlikely to sell the plant until its payment disputes are resolved.
The Houston-based company and the government of the western state of Maharashtra have been locked in a payment battle for months, with the state's electricity board balking at paying Enron what it considers too high a rate for electricity.
At present, Maharashtra's State Electricity Board (MSEB) owes the Dabhol Power Plant, of which Enron is a 65 percent stakeholder, some $48 million for power.
The Dabhol project consists of two phases, the already-built 740 MW power plant and a 1,444 MW plant that is expected to be finished this year.
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