A Thai-Indian consortium has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs 2,000-crore Calcutta airport modernisation project.

ITD of Thailand, which was involved in constructing Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, and its Indian partner ITD CEM have quoted around Rs 2,000 crore, said sources in the civil aviation ministry, which completed examining the bids on Wednesday.

The highest bid was around Rs 2,400 crore. Three consortiums and one company had submitted the technical and financial bids on June 16.

The others were Pomerleu Inc (Canada)-CCCL, TAV Tepe Akfer Yatirim Insaatva Isleme AS (Turkey)-Punj Lloyd Ltd and India’s Larsen and Toubro.

Usually, the lowest bidder is awarded the contract but a ministry official said it would take around three weeks for the award to be announced.

“The bid will be evaluated by a technical committee, which will send its recommendation to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) board for approval,” the official said from Delhi.

Financial as well as technical experts will be members of the committee.

“The cabinet committee of economic affairs will also have to sanction the project in principle, after which the contract will be formally handed to the bidder,” the official added.

The ministry had given the AAI the green light to float the tender before the formal clearance came from the cabinet committee since the process was getting delayed.

Work on the first phase of the modernisation was scheduled to start in January 2008 and completed by the end of 2010. The details of the two other phases are yet to be worked out.

“In our bid, we have given a time frame of around three years to complete the project. As soon as we get the formal clearance we are ready to start the work,” an official of ITD-CEM said from Mumbai.

In the first phase, a new integrated terminal will be built to handle 20 million passengers a year, which will be four times the current capacity and which is expected to take care of the forecast load till 2015-16.

After the modernisation, both runways will be long enough to accept the world’s biggest aircraft, the A380.

The plan has been designed by RMJM of the UK, which has handled prestigious projects like the Scottish parliament building and has worked in Bengal on the Calcutta International Convention Centre at Rajarhat.

The AAI and the consortium that wins the contract will jointly execute the project. ITD-CEM is involved in a number of projects in Bengal, including the Metro Rail and Haldia and Calcutta ports.