Navi Mumbai airport bidding extended

The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco) has once again decided to extend the last date for submitting the financial bids for its ambitious Rs 16,000 crore Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) project to January, 25 this year.

The development had hit a bottleneck last week when three of the four shortlisted firms--Tata Realty-MIA Infrastructure, GMR and Hiranandani-Zurich Airport--decided to pull out of the bidding process.

With GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) as the only firm to submit a bid untill January 9, 2017, Cidco is now extending the date by 15 days giving more time for the other three companies to rethink their decision for the request for quotation (RFQ) stage.

Speaking to DNA Money, Mohan Ninawe, senior public relations officer, Cidco, said, “We have received one bid from GVK, and have now decided to extend the deadline. While there are no changes in the bidding criteria, a decision to extend the last date to January 25, 2017, has been taken. If the (other three) shortlisted bidders are still interested they can submit the bid on or before the new last date.”

The firms qualified for bidding aren’t too excited with Cidco’s decision to extend the final date. According to some of the executives spoken to, Cidco hasn’t addressed any of the execution related concerns with the project.

“What’s the point of extending the final date when there is no change on the ground and the challenges continue as before. There is no reason for the shortlisted companies to reconsider their decision,” said a senior executive requesting not to be quoted.