GMR and Goa government sign pact for international airport in North Goa

Bengaluru-based GMR Infra to build Goa’s Greenfield Mopa airport

Aviation

November 10, 2016

/ By / Kolkata

Biz@India



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GMR to develop Goa's international airport at Mopa

GMR to develop Goa’s international airport at Mopa

To develop and operate Greenfield airport project at Mopa in North Goa, GMR Airports, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, signed a concession agreement with Goa government. Phase I is expected to be completed by 2020 and will cater to 4.4 million passengers.

In the presence of Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Yashwant Parsekar, the agreement was signed by RV Sheshan, CEO, GMR Goa International Airport Ltd and RK Srivastava, Chief Secretary of Goa.

According to sources, the airport will be built under the BOT (Build Operate Transfer) model and the total order size is INR 33 billion.

Long-term agreement

The government and GMR Airports signed formally an agreement to design, build, finance and operate the international airport for 40 years with the extension option for another 20 years.

Srinivas Bommidala, Chairman-Airports, GMR Group said, “GMR is proud to be associated with the new airport. I am sure this airport is going to create new landmarks in terms of performance. If you see the track record of the GMR group, we have built Istanbul airport in 18 months, Delhi airport in 36 months and we are sure about delivering this on time.”

Feasibility of the new and current airports

Bommidala added that there should not be worries about the feasibility of this airport. “We will wait and see. Once the traffic grows there will be no issues with the viability of the airport. Across the country there is 16-18 pc growth in the airport traffic,” he said.

The present airport at Dabolim in Goa has already exceeded its capacity of handling five million passengers a year.

He also said that Mopa airport can sustain despite it being the second facility after Dabolim airport in the state. “There are so many two-airport systems in this world but actually we will have to wait and see. Considering the constraint that is at Dabolim certainly the new growth has to come to Mopa,” he commented.

Competitive bidding

GMR Airport Limited won the bid to build the international Greenfield airport at Mopa in August. GMR was among the five bidders shortlisted by the government, the others being Airports Authority of India, GVK Airport Developers Limited, Essel Infra Projects Limited and Voluptas Developers Private Limited.

The airport will be completed in four phases and on completion, it will be able to handle up to 26 million passengers. Work on the second phase will commence once 80 pc of passenger traffic is handled by the airport. Similarly, work on the third and fourth phases will commence. The airport, will be built on an area of 8,468,261 square metre, of which 252 acres would be utilised for commercial development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the project which is to be built on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.

GMR Airports Ltd runs India’s busiest Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and Hyderabad International Airport. The Delhi airport handles about 46 million passengers a year while the Hyderabad airport handles 40 million passengers annually.

In partnership with Megawide Construction Corp, GMR Infrastructure is also developing Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) in the Philippines.

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