About 15 different companies within and outside the country have bided for the construction of the proposed multi-billion naira Bauchi International Airport.

Chairman of the airport project, Alhaji Bappa Azare, told newsmen yesterday, while monitoring the bidding exercise held at the State Secretariat, Bauchi, that the listed companies, which bided for the project, include Dantata Group of Companies, Arab Construction Company, Triacta Nigeria Limited, Mother Care Company, among others.

It could be recalled that Governor Isa Yuguda recently promised the people of the state that his administration would construct a befitting Interna-tional airport within 20 months, so that the state's intending pilgrims would be airlifted for Holy pilgrimage from the new airport by 2013.

Azare, who is also the Commissioner for Special Duties, said it was in view of the importance the state government attached to the construction of the airport that made the number of companies scrambling for the project to increase to 15.

He also promised that the committee would carry out a thorough and impartial screening exercise on the contractors, in order to pick the best company to handle the project.

While describing the proposed airport as an anticipated blessing for the state, Azare said the committee would access the bidding guidelines with a view to selecting the company that would meet the aspirations of the generality of the people in the state.

Azare gave the assurance that his committee would soon come up with the winner of the bidding so that the airport project execution would commence in earnest.

Azare also debunked insinuations that the renovation work, currently going on at the Bauchi Airstrip was meant to standardise the proposed International Airport