Project gets final bidders : Hindustan Times

Mumbai

NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai International Airport project took a big step forwards on Thursday, with the four final firms that will bid for it selected.

The airport is to be developed through the public-private participation (PPP) model, with 26% equity contribution coming from Cidco.

GMR Air ports, Mumbai Inter national Airport Pvt. Ltd (MIAL), Zurich Airport & Voluptas Developers (Hiranadani group) and VINCI Concessions are the firms that were selected on Thursday, by the project monitoring and implementation committee (PMIC) chaired by the state’s chief secretary, with other senior officials of the state and Centre as its members.

The City and I ndustrial Development Corporation (Cidco) started the first stage of the twolevel bidding process on February 5 this year. The four firms submitted applications for prequalification, expressing interest in the project.

The applications were evaluated on the basis of criteria such as technical and financial health, operation and maintenance (O and M) record, responsiveness, among others.

The O and M experience was specifically included as a criterion to ensure the participation of reputable and experienced airport operators only, Cidco sources said. All the four qualified firms have experience in operating worldclass airports.

While the Zurich Airport ranks seventh globally, GMR and GVK are known for developing the state-of-the-art Delhi and Mumbai airports respectively.

VINCI Concessions is one of the largest concessionaires in Europe and operates 23 airports across the globe.

“With this pre-qualification, the project bidding has reached a very important phase, where the bidders will compete for the airport. They will pay some part of the revenue generated to Cidco,” said Mohan Ninawe, senior public relations officer of Cidco.

The airport, slated to commence commercial operations in the 2019, is designed to serve 10 million passengers per annum (mppa) in its first phase and 60 mppa upon completion, Ninawe said. “Cidco has already obtained major approvals and clearances for the project and started the bidding for land development works,” he said.