contract that could prove costlier than the $4-million a year air operations pact Government is about to sign with a Canadian firm.

The contract takes in vital services like operating runway lighting and ground support, back-up power and water and sewage. It also includes maintaining roads, buildings, and other systems at the 1,200-acre US Naval Air Station at St. David's.

The American Base is being returned to Bermuda next year, along with responsibility for running the Airport.

The prime infrastructure contractor will be a foreign firm but will be required to include Bermudians in its management team and hire Bermudian sub-contractors, Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons said yesterday.

While he would not disclose estimates for the three-year contract, he said that on an annual basis "it could be more expensive'' than the air operations contract Government is about to sign with Serco Aviation Services Inc. of Canada.

That contract is worth about $4 million a year for five years. Serco is among the companies invited to bid on the infrastructure contract. Also on the list are American firms Allied Signal, Brown & Root Services Corp., Day & Zimmerman Services, Global Associates, Halifax Corp., Johnson Controls, Jones (JA) Management Services Inc., Lockheed Air Terminal Inc., Vinell Corp., and the Canadian firm Frontec.

Allied Signal, teamed with Bermuda Aviation Services Ltd., was the losing bidder on the air operations contract. Johnson Controls and Lockheed Air Terminal were invited to bid on that contract, but declined.

The 11 firms have been invited to a bidders' conference and Airport tour in Bermuda on December 6, Dr. Gibbons said. Tenders must be submitted by January 6 and Dr. Gibbons hopes to have a contract signed in mid-February.

Interested prime contractors had to pre-qualify by September 12, so the time frame is not as tight as it might appear, he said.

The companies will be bidding on an infrastructure package that has been sharply scaled back to save money. Of 268 buildings on the Base, Government originally planned to keep 103 active and mothball or preserve another 51. But Canadian consultant Acres International Ltd. said that would cost $14 million a year, after a one-time capital investment of $10 million.

Now, only about 20 buildings involved with air operations will remain active, and 25 will be mothballed, Dr. Gibbons said. This plan will also require capital improvements, but Dr. Gibbons would not disclose the estimated cost.

Bermuda must take over air operations on June 1. Ground support, runway lighting, back-up power, and some other technical areas associated with the fire hall and fire truck maintenance must be taken over by Government's contractor on the same date. Systems like water, sewage, and roads follow on July 1.

Firms invited to bid In some ways, the contract is more complicated than the air operations contract, because of the wide array of systems to be operated and the fact some of them will need to be wound down or mothballed as the US Navy departs, then started back up as tenants move in. Strict international rules govern some of the systems, like runway lighting.

The contract is for three years in the hope that the work can be Bermudianised by then. Government has the option to renew for a fourth or fifth year, Dr.

Gibbons said.

Two systems were removed from the contract, Dr. Gibbons said. Power supply, with the exception of low-voltage power connected to air operations, will be handled by the Bermuda Electric Light Company under a separate contract.

Telephone services have also been separated. Dr. Gibbons said Government will talk to the Bermuda Telephone Company and likely others about providing that service.