The chief minister on Friday after his hour-and-a-half meeting with Ratan Tata told reporters that the project had not been shelved.

"Since the Tatas-led consortium wants to make a fresh assessment, it does not mean that the project has been shelved," the chief minister said.

Tata, for his part, refused to field questions. After repeated attempts to elicit a response from him, all Tata said was Patel would do the talking.

The chief minister said, "The Tatas are quite `clear' that they are not withdrawing from the project. At no point of time, the promoters said the project had been shelved".

The Tatas-Raytheon-Changi Airport ofSingapore combine had expressed serious doubts over the economic viability of the project for undue delays and, hence, decided to review the project afresh," Patel said.

Meanwhile the general apprehension is that despite Patel's claims, a clear picture will emerge only after Ratan Tata's meetings with union civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar next week.

Patel said the vexed issue of retaining the existing HAL airport after commissioning the new one would figure prominently in Tata's discussions with the minister. He said representatives of the state government, the consortium and civil aviation ministry would meet soon to iron out all contentious issues after Tata's discussions with Kumar.