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Cochin International Airport Limited will soon take up the construction of Rs 250 crore worth new 15 lakh sq ft international terminal to meet the growing demands for the next 20 years.
The tender for the civil works, as part of the Rs 850 crore third phase developmental works, will be released on November 1 and the work is expected to start from January next year.
CIAL will stick to its style of the time tested and proven track record of individual tendering which ensures greater professionalism and direct engagement with the original supplier / contractor instead of the lump sum contract method, which would be more costly, V.J.Kurien, Managing Director said.
This contract system would in turn ensure the lowest price, direct method of supervision and control for execution in a time bound manner and also bring in direct involvement of the agency, he said.
The airport company, the first PPP project in the civil aviation sector, has also plans to develop airports in other parts as part of its diversification plans.
According to Kurien, the Board has authorised him to submit bids for tenders invited by the Airports Authority of India for privatisation and development of airports.
In the recently tendered airports of Chennai and Lucknow, CIAL will bid for the Rs 500 crore Lucknow project while clarification is needed for the Chennai Airport, he said.
Being a small airport operator, he said CIAL is expecting stiff competition from bigger players while participating in tenders. However, the company’s expertise in low cost model of development works will stand in good stead to ensure project feasibility.
He also expressed satisfaction that CIAL had already paid back to its shareholders, the equity invested by them in the form of dividend itself, which is a remarkable achievement for an infrastructure project that too in PPP model.
To a question on the proposed Air Kerala project of the Kerala Government, he said that with the 20 aircraft norms and 5 year domestic experience criteria, the venture would not be feasible and relaxation in rules would be necessary in this regard.
Discussions were also on with Air Asia to use Kochi as its operational hub for which certain considerations would also be offered to it, Kurien added.
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