IGI airport spat draws PM's attention - Montek to provide details on talks with DIAL

New Delhi: With a Parliamentary committee, headed by a Left party luminary, issuing summons to officials concerning the expansion programme of Delhi's IGI airport, Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's attention has now been drawn to what is developing into an ever-widening fray. According to Planning Commission officials, deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will brief the prime minister on the discussions he had with Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) officials concerning the expansion work of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Officials said that Ahluwalia would be writing to the  prime minister, giving details of his talks with the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) officials and measures that are being taken to decongest the airport. Ahluwalia held a couple of meetings with DIAL officials last week (12 May), including GMR Infrastructure chief, GM Rao, concerning the bottlenecks holding up expansion of the airport.

Ahluwalia's criticism of DIAL's peformance was not to the liking of civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, who wrote to Ahluwalia on 13 May, and took some potshots at the performance of the Planning Commission itself for delaying modernisation work of the Kolkata and Chennai airports.

The spat widened  further with the Parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, headed by CPM politburo member issuing a summons to officials, asking them to report on the state of affairs at the airport.