Greater Noida: OTTs to cost, key changes in Film City plan to draw bidders

NOIDA: The state government has made several changes in its document to draw bids to build its Film City in Greater Noida, the biggest project in the region after the Noida International Airport.
On Thursday, the state cabinet passed the revised tender and concession agreement for the project, proposed to be built on 1000 acres in Sector 21 of the Yamuna Expressway region. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) will issue a fresh global tender on Saturday, both in prominent Indian cities as well as in the US, UK and Singapore.
YEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh said the advertisement will be published in all major newspapers of the three countries. "Several changes have been incorporated in the bid document after the lack of response to the previous tender," Singh told TOI. "Changes have been made in the concession period and construction plan, besides allowing new entities like OTT platforms and VFX studios to set up their offices here," Singh added.
The government had floated the tender to pick a concessionaire last November and organised a pre-bid meeting in which around 20 companies participated. In January this year, the state cabinet approved the tenders for the project to be implemented on a DBOT (design, build, operate, transfer) basis.
The deadline was extended thrice, but just one company applied. An eight-member public-private partnership (PPP) bid evaluation committee cancelled this bid in July as the company failed to submit the required documents and deposit the earnest money along with tender forms. Subsequently, after taking suggestions from Investors, stakeholders and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the government decided to go for a revision of the terms.
Officials said one of the main reasons cited by Investors for not participating in the tender process was the 40-year limit on the concession period. It has been increased to 60 years, with a provision to raise it by 30 more years.
Another major change is the state government stepping away from designing the project and giving the concessionaire those rights. The estimated cost has been revised to Rs 7,210 crore (after deducting expenditure on land) from Rs 10,000 crore. The project will be developed on the public-private-partnership model. Amendments have also been made in a developer's technical and financial qualification and experience requirements.