Countdown for Mopa
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The government is set to invite global request for proposal on the proposed greenfield Mopa airport within another 10 days, which will decide the concessionaire or the successful bidder for the Rs 3000 crore project.
The selection process that is to start now will involve a two-step process, officials said Tuesday. The state government’s part in the PPP project is to give the land for which the total acquisition process has been completed.
However, the team involved in the project is not aware about any superhighway that could connect North and South Goa. “The basic draft is ready,” Joint Secretary Anand Sherkhane said. Though Sherkhane was not willing to disclose the exact date of the release of the request, he admitted that it was close.
According to officials, once the proposals come from the interested bidders after the request for quotations these will be first assessed to find out whether they qualify. Thereafter the quality of the bids and prospective bidders will be assessed regarding their ability to bear the costs, technical proficiency and other such parameters.
The second step of the process will begin where the authorities will decide whether ~ in layman’s terms ~ the prospective candidates will be able to handle the project or not and then finally the concessionaire will be finalized.
“Actually it is a two-stage process, but in actual terms it is 3-stage process,” officials involved admit, while confirming the fact that the Mopa ball had started rolling a “long time back” and now what was left was shooting the goal.
It may be recalled that the chief minister last year had promised that the bidding process would start by March 2013 and had cited an environmental clearance delay for slowing the bidding process and that the over Rs 3,000 crore airport would be ready within the next four years.
