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Hyderabad airport : AP pact with Ministry this month

V. Rishi Kumar

HYDERABAD, Nov. 12

HAVING firmed up the December 4 deadline for receipt of project proposals from the competitive bidding process, the Andhra Pradesh Government expects to choose the developer within about a month of receipt of concrete proposals for the Hyderabad interna tional airport to be developed at Shamshabad, about 25 km from Hyderabad.

The State Roads and Buildings Minister, Mr K.Vijayarama Rao, said the land acquisition work had been speeded up and all the six bidders, out of the initial eight in the fray were in constant touch with the State administration and consultants seeking nec essary information and clarifications.

``We expect the selection process to be concluded within 30 days of the submission of bids,'' he said.

The Government would enter into an agreement with the Civil Aviation Ministry later this month since it would be the third major participant in the project along with the State Government and the private developer. While the State Government and the Unio n Ministry would hold 13 per cent stake, the private developer would hold 74 per cent of the equity, Mr Rao said.

The Government has initiated the cumbersome process of land acquisition of 5,000 acres for this greenfield airport. While over 2000 acres of land are under the Government control already, the district administration has been carrying out the acquisition on behalf of the developer. The entire process is expected to be completed by March 2001. The State Government had allotted Rs 10 crores for the land acquisition and related issues.

Tata Economic Consultants along with their overseas consultant partner, Speedwing, a division of British Airways, were appointed as consultants for assisting the State Government in selection of suitable partner for development of the international airp ort both at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. Consequently, the TEC had prepared a 10-volume report for the project.

Mr Rao said that it was the Government's endeavour to expedite its implementation so that the project not only gets speeded up and facilitates in early international flights, but also leverages the facility as a regional hub.

As against the initial plan to choose the developer by October-end, the date was rescheduled in September based on the requests of the bidders as also the convenience of the State Government. The project is to be developed on DFBOM (design, finance, buil ding, operations and maintenance) model.

While the first phase would involve development of the runway and the terminal, the second phase was expected to cover other related infrastructure for the project, Mr Rao said.

The State Government, meanwhile, in order not to lose the initiative and attract international traffic, was keen on optimising the use of the existing Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Begumpet in Hyderabad.

It was felt that the existing runway at the Begumpet airport, which was not being fully used, could be leveraged by making certain changes before the first phase of the Shamshabad airport was developed, Mr Rao said.