Hiranandani-Zurich Airport fails to clear security check

It comes after Union ministry of civil aviation granted approval to Cidco for the issue of request for proposal

Only three bidders - GMR group, GVK-led Mumbai International Airport and the Tata Realty-MIA Infrastructure consortium - will now be in the fray for the Navi Mumbai international airport, as the Union ministry of home affairs has rejected security clearance to the fourth shortlisted consortium of Hiranandani Developers and Zurich Airport.

The ministry's rejection comes close on the heels of Union ministry of civil aviation granting approval to City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) for the issue of request for proposal (RFP).

A Cidco executive told Business Standard, "The ministry of home affairs has not cited any reason while refusing the security clearance to the Hiranandani Development-Zurich Airport consortium. With this development, there will be only three bidders in the fray." He, however, said Cidco would soon seek the state cabinet's approval for inviting RFPs from the three qualified bidders.

In its response, Hiranandani Developers spokesperson told Business Standard: "We understand that there are some deficiencies in our security clearance application, for which we have approached the government to understand it better. We are hopeful that the matter will be resolved shortly. We are extremely well-positioned to bid and are extremely excited about our prospects of successfully winning this tender."

The state government and Cidco hope to award the contract by June so that the first phase with passenger handling capacity of 10 million gets commissioned by December 2019. Cidco has put a trigger in the RFP that as soon as a particular percentage (of traffic growth) is crossed for three months, the developer will have to start work on phase two of the project to increase capacity to 25 million passengers.