A month after the civil aviation ministry gave its approval to the master plan of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (Cidco) expects at least 10 international developers to evince interest in the project.
Cidco, the agency responsible for development of new urban areas, will float global tenders for the project by the end of this month.
“International developers can participate in the tendering process. We will scrutinise each developer’s proposal, including their financial strength, details of previous projects and style of working, and then make our decision,” said an official from the nodal agency, requesting anonymity.
The Navi Mumbai International Airport development will be carried through public-private participation, with Cidco holding 26% equity and the private developer the rest. The equity will be raised through public bidding.
“We will also seek viability gap funding, if necessary. The Navi Mumbai airport would be one of world’s few greenfield, international state-of-art airport, which will offer world-class facilities,” the Cidco official added.
Spread over 1,140 hectares, the proposed airport will accommodate two parallel runways with provision of full-length taxiways on either side of the runways.
There is an urgent need for an additional international airport for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to help decongest the current airport. According to Cidco officials, the proposed airport will handle around 10 million passengers after the first phase is complete in 2014.
“We are spending more than Rs4,000 crore on the first phase of the proposed airport. Cidco is working hard to get the tenders for the much-delayed Navi Mumbai airport out by end of July. We hope that more than 10 international developers will respond to the tender,” said a Mantralaya official, requesting anonymity.
In a related development, Cidco will replant mangroves on more than 678 hectares of land to compensate for the existing mangroves on 161 hectares that will be destroyed for the project.
“We are awaiting the forest department’s no-objection certificate. We have assured them that we will plant the same number of mangroves or any other plant in any part of the state. The important thing is that we do not have to demolish buildings and rehabilitate many residents,” said another Cidco official.
The airport will be developed on mostly open, barren land, except for some green spaces.
Apart from the cutting of mangroves, the project would also require levelling a 90-metre-tall hillock and diverting one of the two rivers that are in its vicinity.
Last month, the ministry of civil aviation had given its in-principle approval for the development of greenfield airport at the Navi Mumbai. Subsequently, the state cabinet also approved the development of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.
