Navi Mumbai Airport update

Cidco, the planning and development body for Navi Mumbai, will float a global tender for building the proposed international airport in the satellite city.
Government sources have said that the project may see tough competition from bidders as about 10 companies have already shown interest.
“The tender is to invite companies and judge qualifications according to required financial and technical criteria. The final proposals will be invited from the selected companies or consortia later,” said sources. The tendering would take eight to 10 months minimum, they added. A Rs.14,000-crore project is proposed to be developed on a 2,000 hectare plot along Panvel creek in Navi Mumbai. Airports Authority of India, and Cidco are stakeholders in the project.

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), which recently gifted the city a state-of-the-art terminal—T2 — is likely to bag the contract to develop the city’s second airport, in Navi Mumbai. Sources said MIAL would be able to exercise the ‘right of first refusal’ option in the tendering process whereby it may win the contract even if its bid is not less than 10% of the highest bidder.
Further, bidders with a minimum net worth of Rs 2,375 crore and having developed Rs 9,500 crore projects will be eligible to bid for the greenfield international airport project, which is expected to be operational by 2018.
Cidco, the nodal agency for the airport, floated tenders for the project on Wednesday.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan hoped that first stage of bidding process would be over in the next 90 days after which the final competition to bag the project would begin. “We hope to finish the first phase with one runway by 2018,” said Cidco MD Sanjay Bhatia.
According to Bhatia, work to create a township for resettlement of project-affected people has already begun. “During the bidding process over the next year, a small amount of land which remains to be acquired would come to Cidco,” he said, pointing out that there was absolutely no hurdle before the project now.
Of the 2,268 hectares required for the airport project, 1,572 hectares are already in Cidco’s possession. The project cost, pegged at Rs.4,766 crore in 1998, has risen to around Rs.14,573 crore. The airport project will be developed on 1,160 hectares and is expected to have an ultimate capacity of 60 million passengers per annum by 2030.