MSRDC, which has appointed by the state government as a nodal agency for this project, had selected the L&T led consortium from five shortlisted bidders who had submitted their bids in September this year. The list of other bidders included Dorsch Consult, TCE Consulting Engineers Ltd and Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick India Pvt Ltd.

MSRDC executive director RK Jha told The Financial Express that the consortium's appointment would be effective from January 1 and it would have to submit a techno-economic feasibility study within eight months. However, the consortium would have to submit a detailed master plan for this project in four months.

Mr Jha said that the techno-economic feasibility study would be related mainly to the volume of traffic both passenger and cargo and its handling capacity, requirement of various agencies during the development of multi-modal international hub airport. The consortium would have to give the total cost for this project to be developed on build-operate-transfer basis.

In addition to this, the consortium would have to provide a comprehensive revenue model and various options to raise funds, marketing strategy. "L&T led consortium will give at least two options whereby private sector participation is encouraged. Thereafter, the consortium would prepare a bid document and submit it to MSRDC," Mr Jha said.

Mr Jha said that the multi-modal international hub airport project envisages upgradation of existing Nagpur runway spread on 3,200 meters to handle wide body aircraft, construction of parallel runway in phase-II, development of world class infrastructure for transit/trans-shipment cargo for speedy clearance and state-of-the-art terminal facilities for both domestic and international transit, originating/arriving passengers with proper convenient integration. Additional land of 1,800 hectares would be acquired for this project.

Mr Jha said that leading agencies such as Container Corporation of India, Central Warehousing Corporation, Maharashtra Warehousing Corporation, Air Cargo division of KLM, Blue Dart, Elbee Airlines, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Agricultural Produce Export Development Agency have already shown considerable interest in this project.

As far as airport passenger facilities are concerned, Mr Jha said that immigration, customs clearance and baggage handling facilities would be provided. The aircargo facilities would include container freight station, warehousing and transit godowns with reception and despatch yard, freight forwarding terminal, airmail facilities, free trade zone and airport maintenance facility centre. Mr Jha said that Nagpur is not only the centre of India but also centrally located between South East Asia and Europe as well as between Russia, China and Australia. More than 300 international fights are overflying Nagpur. He added that the centre has already taken a decision to make Nagpur airport available for cargo operations.

"Development of an interface between air cargo, rail cargo and road cargo makes Nagpur airport a most promising location for developing a facility of multi-modal international hub airport," Mr Jha said and added that it has got the potential to become an important hub for both international and domestic air passage.