Navi Mumbai Airport expected to attract up to 12 foreign vendors
Navi Mumbai Airport is slated to garner at least 12 foreign vendors when official call for development bids goes out. The optimism is based on the fact that majority of hurdles surrounding the airport has been removed. Major international airport development companies like Fraport AG and Changi Airports International Pte. Ltd. is expected to be included in the final list of bidders. According to Sanjay Bhatia, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of CIDCO, Flughafen Zurich AG, Hochtief Group of Germany, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and Dublin Airport Authority Plc., are some of the leading contenders.
CIDCO has already advertised a global tender for the proposed Navi Mumbai Airport. The last date to apply for request for qualification (RFQ) document is slated to be on 18th June, 2014. Laid out over 1,160 hectares, the international airport is expected to be able to handle approximately 60 million passengers in a year.
The project was ridden by many hurdles, including protests by the relocated locals and environmental clearances. This has led to significant delays for the airport, which was supposed to be operational by 2011.
Hyderabad based, GVK group, will also bid alongside the international vendors. This is because GVK holds the first right of refusal for development purposes of Mumbai Airport. According to Sanjay, “The first flight at Navi Mumbai airport is expected to take off in 2018. There is no case for flight allocation as it will be handling 10 million passengers per year in the first phase. Mumbai’s current airport is capable of handling only 40 million passengers. There is a need for Mumbai to handle a capacity of 100 million by 2030.”
However, this project is still fraught with risks such as inadequate road connectivity between the city and the airport. Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer (South Asia) at the consultancy firm Capa Centre for Aviation, expects the airport to be functional only by 2020. He said, “The sense of purpose and commitment in terms of ensuring start-up clearances missing at the state level was missing. Faster execution is critical for this project.”
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