IL&FS bids for consultancy on UP airport

Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) is in the race for providing consultancy services to the mega project of Uttar Pradesh government, for the proposed international airport at Kushinagar district, and developing the Buddhist Circuit.

The state government had invited bids from reputed consultancies, and three companies, including IL&FS, had submitted their papers. “The technical and financial bids have been opened and are being evaluated,” an official source told Business Standard.

Last month, the UP government had modified the bidding terms and conditions for the interested consultancies to prepare a comprehensive project report, bid document and concession agreement for the proposed projects in public private partnership (PPP) mode on design-built-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The terms were modified to make it more attractive for the consultancies to evince interest, since earlier only one company, IL&FS, had submitted its documents. Interestingly, the department is maintaining utmost secrecy on the other two firms in contention, since “the matter is still under evaluation”.

“The feedback that we got from some consultants was that since, it was an international project, they would like to bid jointly with foreign firms. They wanted more time to seal an alliance and then bid,” State Tourism Director General Sushil Kumar said.

The state government already owns about 160 hectares of land in Kushinagar for the airport and more would be acquired depending upon the report of the consultant. The proposed international airport will directly connect Japan, Myanmar, Korea, China, Thailand, Bhutan and Sri Lanka with Kushinagar, since these countries account for the maximum number of tourists in the Buddhist Circuit.

Although the Circuit, comprising Sarnath, Kushinagar, Sankisa Kaushambi, Shravasti and Kapilvastu, attracts pilgrims from all over the world, especially Japan and South East Asian countries, its immense potential is still to be unlocked due to government apathy and lack of infrastructure facilities.

The consultants will have to adhere to the ASI norms while preparing the blueprint for setting up of the international airport and development of the Buddhist Circuit.