L&T awarded EPC contract to build Navi Mumbai International Airport

GVK group awarded the Navi Mumbai airport's engineering procurement and construction contract to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Construction.

The deal size and project completion deadline has not been disclosed by the GVK group in its announcement but sources pegged the deal value to be over Rs 6,000 crore.

GVK won the bid to construct the Navi Mumbai  airport in 2017 and the concession agreement for the project was signed in January 2018. A tender floated in August previous year to select the EPC contractor was . 

In June, L&T was selected by the board of planning authority, City and Industrial Development Corporation for the job. A formal agreement was signed today by GVK group founder and chairman GVK Reddy and L&T's managing director S N Subrahmanyan.

The project scope work includes cut and fill works, terminal works including departure and arrival forecourts, airfield development including runway, taxiway, roads, multilevel car park, utilities and support facilities.

The passenger terminal building is being developed to initially handle a capacity of 10 million passengers a year and will be subsequently increased to handle 20 million, GVK group said.

Navi Mumbai airport has been plagued by delays and cost escalation over issues related to land acquisition and environment issues. 

The first phase project cost is pegged at over Rs 14,000 crore and will be funded through equity investment and Rs 10,300-crore long-term debt. While the state hopes the airport will be ready by mid-2020, CRISIL in its report in May-end had said operations are expected to start in 2023.