GMR, GVK, Changi in race to pilot Fedara airport

Gandhinagar: Top infrastructure firms like GMR, GVK and Changi of Singapore are learnt to be in the race to develop the proposed world class international airport at Fedara village, 85 km from Ahmedabad, near Dholera.
The airport, which was first mooted a year ago, is on the fast track and evoking keen interest among airport developers, thanks to the recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit 2009, government sources said.
A top bureaucrat close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi told TOI that the summit saw top infrastructure groups making a beeline for developing the international airport, of which these three biggies seemed to be more serious. The three giants are believed to be keen on developing the airport in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
"Executives of the three groups participating in the summit showed keen interest in developing the greenfield airport, for which 1,690.22 hectares of land has been reserved next to Fedara," a senior official said.
"We have, however, asked them to hold on as the proposal has been sent to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for preparing a detailed project report. Once we receive the AAI nod for the site, we will get down to the job of zeroing in on a developer for the airport."
According to sources, AAI officials present at the summit, including AAI's technical and financial director, were urged by the state government to expedite the DPR preparation.
18/01/09 Rajiv Shah/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2009, Foreign Jan 2009, New Jan 2009