Navi Mumbai airport: CIDCO likely to hand over work to GVK by May 2018

Construction in progress at Ulwe, Navi Mumbai. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

THE CITY Industrial and Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is executing the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) project, is expected to hand over the work to the GVK group, which has won the bid to construct the airport, by May 2018. This will make the GVK in-charge of the pre-development work at the airport site, officials said. So far, the CIDCO has undertaken the first phase of cutting the Ulwe hill at the airport site, land development work, which includes land filling, and rehabilitation of as many as 3,000 families. Officials from the CIDCO said the GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) would complete the remaining groundwork at the site and also commence work on building airport infrastructure.

“We aim to novate the responsibilities of the airport work to the MIAL by the first half of next year. Within this time period, they are expected to complete their financial closure and have a masterplan ready for the airport. Within phase I, they will be completing the work of terminal building, runway and taxiway,” said Prajakta Verma, Joint Managing Director, CIDCO. The MIAL won the bid for constructing the airport in February this year. After a wait of almost eight months, it was handed over the Letter of Intent (LOI) for developing the airport by the CIDCO in October. Officials from the MIAL confirmed it would take four-six months to get financiers for the project and develop a plan.

“We will sign off from the concession agreement and hand over the work to our concessionaire agency, the MIAL, through novation by the first half of next year. What the CIDCO will be in charge of then would be to assess the quality of work being carried out by different agencies involved in the project. We will supervise the set-up,” Verma added.

With as many as 10 contractors and sub-contractors involved in ground-levelling work, the CIDCO aims to complete the pre-development work by December 2018. “We are eyeing a deadline of 18-24 months from now to complete the pre-development works at the airport site, which is ground levelling and river diversification. The monsoon could deter us from our target and we could then work three shifts for rest of the year to compensate the loss. The CIDCO is very much going to meet the deadline of flying the first aircraft from the airport by December 2019,” Verma added. MIAL officials said they would follow the concession agreement. “We will surely achieve financial closure by then,” said a GVK spokesperson.

Officials said as many as 250 families had shifted to the rehabilitated site, while 750 more had signed the land lease agreement. At least 2,000 plots were ready and the rest 750 would be ready by February-end, they said.

“As per the agreement, five per cent of the project-affected parties will get a job. We will also employ them in logistics training at the airport, employ them as documentation assistants at the airport or encourage them in contracting jobs required at the site. We are further helping their families with skill-based learning courses, including weaving,” Verma added.