The State Road, Buildings and Ports Minister, Mr K Vijayarama Rao, told Business Line that the team of experts comprising officials of the Central Government, Aviation Ministry and consultants, who are on a mission to evaluate the developers, is expected to return on March 2.

``Once they return from Zurich and Kuala Lumpur where the bidders have developed projects, they are expected to ink their findings. Based on their findings and the evaluation of the bidders track record, the lone bidder from among them, is expected to be chosen by March end,'' he said.

The two consortia being evaluated include Zurich Airport Real Estate Consultants and L&T combine and GMR Group and Malaysia Airport Holdings.

The two-stage bidding process for the development of the airport was initiated by the State Government which had enlisted the services of Tata Economic Consultancy Services to assist and guide the State in choosing the developer through the international competitive bidding process.

Based on the feasibility study by the consultants, which had taken up work along with Speedwing, a division of British Airways, from the initial nine bids, six were short-listed. Later, in the second stage, it was reduced to two contenders. Now the consultants are evaluating these two bids.

Parallelly, while the land acquisition process has been initiated by the State Government, the entire zone where the airport is planned and surrounding areas in the air flight funnel and in the vicinity are planned to be earmarked as special zones to curb haphazard development.

New zoning regulations are expected to be announced shortly which will curb illegal construction as also sale of plotted lands in the entire region. The Government is in the process of acquiring about 5,000 acres for the multi-stage airport project.

Already, realtors are marketing plots around the area in the name of the proposed airport. Soon the Government, through Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the district administration, is expected to crackdown on these realtors.

The Government has also run into opposition from residents and farmers of some villages in the region who have formed an association -- Shamshabad oustees association to see that they get adequate compensation towards their lands as and when they are acquired.

While the Roads Minister interacted with the resident farmers to impress upon them about the Government's plan and its approach, noted social worker, Ms Medha Patkar, was here earlier this year and addressed the residents on how to go about protecting their rights.