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Mumbai, Feb 14: With the civil aviation ministry expected to invite bids for modernisation of 35 non-metro airports in the country soon, a host of private companies, including Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Pratibha Industries, GMR Infrastructure and GVK Industries, have expressed their keenness to enter the fray. GMR Infrastructure and GVK Industries had earlier bagged the mandate to modernise the metro airports of Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.
Says an L&T official, “We are certain to take up the development projects at the non-metro airports in the near future. We will invest in developing primary infrastructure like the runways, parking bays, cargo terminals and other technical facilities.” L&T had recently won the non-aeronautical, Rs 5,400 crore contract for Delhi airport modernisation against international competitive bidding.
Civil aviation ministry officials have said that though the date for inviting bids for non-metro airport modernisation has not been announced, they would invite the bids by way of newspaper advertisements soon.
The ministry may also ask private firms not to cherry pick airports, but may have to bid for ‘bunches’, according to certain reports. The development of non-metro airports in far flung places like Jammu, Varanasi, Vishakhapatnam, Trichi, Khajuraho, Nagpur, Dimapur, Aurangabad and Imphal will add to the economic growth of the region.
GMR Infrastructure, already in the process of revamping the Delhi airport, considers the development of non-operational airstrips a viable business opportunity. Says an official from GMR, “We are looking ahead to bid for the development of the airstrips which are not commercially exploited.”
Non-metro airports would require an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore, which these companies would arrange through external sources.
Even Mumbai-based Pratibha Industries Ltd is confident to take up airport infrastructure project after securing a Rs 122-crore contract from the Airport Authority of India for construction of the new international terminal building of the Ahmedabad Airport in joint venture with Italian Thai Development Public Company Ltd. The company's chief financial officer, TR Radhakrishnan says, “We will be focusing on smaller airports too in the near future.”
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