Station is down to two contenders, The Royal Gazette has learned.

After receiving six bids on the contract -- estimated in Wednesday's Budget to cost $6.1 million in its first year -- Government has narrowed the choice to one English and one American firm, sources confirmed yesterday.

Representatives of Serco-IAL of the United Kingdom and Halifax Corp. of Alexandria, Virginia are expected to visit the Island next week for final interviews.

The proposals submitted by the two firms were "incredibly close'', a source told The Royal Gazette .

The US Navy is quitting the St. David's Base on September 1. In January, Government received six bids on the multi-million-dollar contract to run lighting, sewage, and other systems at the Airport for the next three years.

Other bidders were: Brown & Root Services Corp. of Houston, Texas; Day & Zimmerman Services of Greenville, South Carolina; Frontec of Ottawa, Canada; and Global/Belmont JV Ltd. of Reston, Virginia.

Halifax Corp. is an electronics services and facilities support company.

Serco-IAL is the parent company of Serco Aviation Services of Canada, which was recently awarded the five-year air operations contract.

That contract, which takes in air traffic control, firefighting, weather, and ground electronics maintenance, is worth $4.4 million a year.

"The (infrastructure) contract will be probably in excess of the Serco (Canada) contract, but it looks like we'll be able to get good value for money for the Government of Bermuda,'' Bases transition manager Mr. Ken Stubbings said in January.

Mr. Stubbings would not state the price range for the bids. But he said there was a lower-priced group of three bids with similar prices, and a higher-priced group of the three bids with similar prices.

The contractor selected -- who is expected to use Bermudian sub-contractors -- will be responsible for runway lighting, water service, standby power, and building maintenance, among other duties.

The company is to assume responsibility for various systems in phases, starting with runway lighting on June 1 and concluding with building maintenance on August 1.