| FOLLOWING the decision to award the development of the Hyderabad international airport to the consortium headed by GMR Vasavi Infrastructure Ltd and its partner, Malaysian Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB), the Andhra Pradesh Government is now weighing the possibility to adopting a flexible consensus award model.
With the State Government setting up a task force and a implementation committee to oversee faster implementation of this ambitious greenfield project, land acquisition has become an important aspect for the development of the airport, according to a senior Government official.
A 5000-acre site has been identified for the project and the process of land acquisition has been kicked off after the State Government had cleared Rs 10 crore for acquisition-related purposes.
Interestingly, a land acquisition committee has been constituted to oversee and assist the Government in the acquisition process. It may be recalled that some residents in the proposed Shamshabad area had raised objections against land acquisition and the State Roads and Buildings Minister, Mr K. Vijayarama Rao, held meetings with them to impress upon them about the project and the Government's efforts to relocate them.
Consequent on the final report submitted by the consultants -- Tata Economic Consultancy Services -- in May 2001, the State Government had approved GMR-MAHB consortium bid ahead of its other short-listed competitive bid of Zurich Airport-Siemens, Germany and L&T combine.
The GMR consortium has since paid security amount as also submitted information relating to the equity participation of the Malaysian partner and its commitment to the project.
While this $300-million phase one of the project is set to take off, the State Government and the Airports Authority of India are in the process of expanding the existing Hyderabad airport at Begumpet. They have set a 18-month time frame for expansion of the airport and extension of the runway.
However, there is a catch to this since one of the important considerations for the development of the international airport is to close down the existing airport at Hyderabad. But if the Government waits till the new airport comes up, it fears that the Hyderabad airport will lose out on attracting traffic.
The Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has been urging the Central Government to come up with an `open sky' policy as this will pave the way for attracting more airliners to India and Hyderabad in particular. Of significance is the interest shown by British Airways, Singapore Airways, Sri Lankan Airways, Swiss Air among others to commission flights to Hyderabad.
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