GVK gets nod for Navi Mumbai International Airport project

Mumbai, Oct 24:Nearly nine months after it won the bid, the GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Ltd on Tuesday got the green signal to start work on the Rs 16,000-crore Navi Mumbai International Airport, officials said here.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who presided over the cabinet meeting said that the City & Industrial Development Corporation will be the nodal agency for the project and the greenfield airport is expected to be operational by December 2019.

In the original tendering process, the bidders were GMR Airports, Hiranandani Group, Zurich Airport International AG, MIA Infrastructures (Vinci Airport & Tata Realty Company) and GVK-led MIAL.

The GVK, which currently manages the Mumbai International Airport LTd, submitted the highest revenue sharing model of 12.6 per cent per annum over its sole closest competitor GMR (which manages the New Delhi International Airport) which had quoted a figure of 10.44 per cent.

The new airport coming up on 1,160 hectares, will be constructed on a public-private-partnership model (PPP) for which CIDCO will foot the pre-development expenses that will be later recovered from GVK.

An official said that based on the detailed evaluation of the bid, the Project Monitoring & Implementation Committee recommended MIAL for the project, which was granted cabinet approval on Tuesday.

The CIDCO will get 12.6 per cent share in the annual revenue and 26 per cent equity shares in the project.