Zurich Airport emerges as top bidder for Delhi’s second international airport

[Safal Suri]

 

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/delhi-s-second-international-airport-zurich-airport-bids-highest-for-jewar-11575023571779.html

 

 

Zurich Airport emerges as top bidder for Delhi’s second international airport

 

The first phase of the project is due to be operational by 2023, handling 12 million passengers per year

 

If implemented on time, it could ease the capital’s air traffic woes and boost stagnant real estate prices around Noida.

 

3 min read . Updated: 29 Nov 2019, 06:36 PM IST\

 

Rhik Kundu

 

 

 

New Delhi: Switzerland’s Zurich Airport International AG has emerged as the highest bidder for the proposed airport at Jewar on the outskirts of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh, sparking hopes that work on the long-delayed project will at last begin. The first phase of the project is due to be operational by 2023, handling 12 million passengers per year, according to an official of Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL). If implemented on time, it could ease the capital’s air traffic woes and boost stagnant real estate prices around Noida.

 

Zurich Airport beat GMR Group-led consortium Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Adani Enterprises Limited and Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited in the race by offering the highest revenue share per passenger, according to an official of Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL).

 

While Zurich offered ₹400.97 per passenger, GMR Group-led DIAL, which had the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) for the Jewar airport project, offered ₹351 per passenger. Adani Group and Anchorage's bids stood at ₹360 per passenger and ₹205 per passenger respectively. The final selection of the bid will still need to be awarded by the airport’s project monitoring and implementation committee on 2 December, though this is likely to be a formality, said an NIAL official, who requested anonymity.

 

Zurich Airport International AG said that it will will build and manage the new greenfield airport in Jewar, under a 40-year concession., The construction process will require a total investment of Swiss Franc 650 million ( ₹4663.731 crore) during its first phase, which will take four years to complete. The Jewar airport will be the national capital’s third after the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and Ghaziabad's Hindon. The new airport will be 100 kilometers from the GMR Group-operated Delhi airport, the capital’s only international airport so far.

 

The second phase of the Jewar Airport project is due to be completed by FY 2031 and will increase the airport’s capacity to 30 million passengers per year, while the third and fourth phase are due to be finished by FY 2036 and FY2040 respectively, and further boost the capacity to 50 million passengers and 70 million passengers respectively. While the development is positive for the entire aviation sector, Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, a director with CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory, said that “it will be important that all the external connectivity are addressed on a war footing and an unencumbered site for development is also given to the concessionaire at the earliest."

 

A real estate consultant was cautious about the move. “Until there are visible signs of construction activity at Jewar International Airport, the potential for other real estate developments, such as residential, commercial or retail, will remain on hold," said Santhosh Kumar, vice-chairman Anarock Prperty consultants. Developers had bought large land parcels in the vicinity several years ago in the hope of cashing in on the airport project when it was announced in 2001, but even after today’s development may refrain from launching commercial and residential projects due to an oversupply, Kumar added. However, another analyst said he was optimistic about the area’s potential, despite the chequered history.

 

“We have seen in case of Gurgaon, how proximity to airport benefited the real estate in the city," said Mudassir Zaidi, executive director-north, Knight Frank India, a real estate consultancy firm.“There is certainly a need of another airport in the NCR, given the geographically spread out of NCR. Property prices are tend to increase once an infrastructure project is announced, in case of Jewar airport, we will witness real growth and appreciation now."

 

It could lead to the Noida-Greater Noida area emerging on par with Gurgaon in the future, he said.

 

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