The lowest bidder is likely to be determined in six-eight weeks, after which contract negotiations will begin. The lowest bidder will be determined after considering life-cycle costs for both vendors.
"With the opening of bids, the process for selecting the lowest bidder has begun," Kar said. He added that during the meeting, both vendors were notified about the other's cost per unit. He, however, declined to comment on the figures, citing confidentiality clauses.
Kar also declined to comment on where each vendor stood in relation to the benchmark price determined by the defence ministry. Benchmarking refers to the process by which the reasonable cost range of acquisition is determined. The defence ministry had completed this process in October.
Officials said that after benchmarking, the final cost of acquisition could be significantly higher than the originally anticipated cost of Rs42,000 crore.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter said that Dassault was "marginally lower" on the unit cost. Mint could not independently confirm this.
Phone calls made to Dassault officials remained unanswered.
"Our offer for India's medium multi-role combat aircraft tender is backed by the four Eurofighter partner nations, as well as their respective aerospace and defence industries. It is competitive and designed to deliver maximum value to India," Cassidian, the defence and security subsidiary of EADS, said in a statement. "Our proposal to make India a full partner in the Eurofighter programme is fully supported by Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy."