Maharashtra state government, in India, issued last Friday the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the proposed Greenfield airport at Mopa, seeking bids from interested companies to construct the airport.

The four shortlisted companies have till April 16 to respond and bid for the project. The firms bidding in this RFP phase are the following:

• GVK Infrastructure,
• GMR Airports,
• Essel Infra and Zurich Airports
• Airports Authority of India.

Voluptas Developers, which was one of the contenders, finally dropped out of the race.

The successful bidder will be chosen based on the highest share of revenue and the plan for the airport.

The central government's steering committee for civil aviation has vetted and cleared the concession agreement

Construction for the airport is expected to start by September 2016 and the first phase of the project will take 36 months to e delivered. The full project is likely to be commissioned in 2019.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The total project investment, including the four phases, is estimated at around US$700 million. The estimated investment for phase I of the project is estimated at around US$35 million. 

Ammann and Whitney from the United states prepared the Master Plan and the Feasibility Study. A financial consultant, KPMG, and a technical consultant, Louis Berger, were appointed in March 2013 to analyze the feasibility of the project.

The new Mopa airport will enhance tourism in Goa, which is its primary industry. It handles about 13% of all foreign tourist arrivals in India. Goa is situated on the western coast of India, between the borders of Maharashtra and Karnataka.