GMR Infrastructure to develop Mopa airport in Goa

Panaji - Bangaluru-based GMR Infrastructure has won the final financial bid for construction of the greenfield airport at Mopa in North Goa, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar announced here on Friday. The claims of all bidders were opened today by a committee comprising senior government officials. [caption id=“attachment_2537332” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “GMR has won the financial bid and it has pledged 36.99 per cent revenue sharing with the state government after the airport becomes operational,” the Chief Minister told reporters. He said other bidders like Airport Authority of India and ESSEL Infra had quoted 32.31 per cent and 27 per cent as the revenue share from the project with state government, which will be operational on BOOT (build, own, operate, transfer) basis. The airport is planned in the Northernmost part of the state adjoining Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay the foundation stone for the project during second week of September. This would be the second airport in the coastal state after Dabolim airport in South Goa. Once being fully operational, Mopa airport will have the capacity to handle nine million passengers per annum. State Governor Mridula Sinha in her speech during the first Assembly session this year had told the legislators that the first phase of the airport would be functional by 2019.