Source: The Times of India Goa November 4, 2014
Panaji: Sixteen infrastructure development companies from Malaysia, China, Germany, Korea, and India have shown interest in the construction of the International Greenfield Airport at Mopa in North Goa.
On Monday, 12 of these firms, including Essel Infra Mumbai, Air Asia Pvt Ltd, Vemb-Malaysia, Incheon Airport-Korea, Darin Airport-Korea, Indian Ocean Maritime India Pvt Ltd, Tata Realty, IRB-Infrastructural Developers Ltd, GMR-Airports, GVK Mumbai and IL&FS Transportation Network Limited-Mumbai attended the pre-bid meeting at the Porvorim secretariat complex. Shakat Aviation, Hira Nandani, Egis India Ltd, and Astute Engineering & Services Ltd did not attend.
The bidders were given a presentation by the state government on the master plan and overview of the project. Chief minister Manohar Parrikar was present at the pre-bid meeting, said Suresh Shanbhogue, director, directorate of civil aviation, and answered all queries raised by the companies. The companies "mostly wanted to know the government's seriousness on the project", said Shanbhogue.
He further said the state government will shortlist those companies which score 70% and above in the technical qualification stage.
"The government has decided to shortlist a minimum of six bidders, and if we do not get six bidders with 70% scores, we will relax the score to 60% to get at least six bidders," said Shanbhogue.
He quickly added that given the response received to the project, the state government is "very sure of getting over six bidders with over 70% scores".
On October 3, the state government issued a global request for qualification (RFQ) for the development of a Greenfield international airport at Mopa on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. The airport will be built on public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
According to the RFQ document, the airport will be developed in four phases. Phase I is to be completed by 2020 and will cater to 4.4 million passengers; phase II should be ready by 2025 and cater to 5.8 million passengers; phase III should be ready by 2035 and will cater to 9.4 million passengers; and phase IV will be ready by 2045 and cater to 13.1 million passengers.
The government has acquired 82lakh sqm of land for the Mopa airport.
