Mumbai: A day after the GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) won the bid to construct Navi Mumbai airport, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) informed the Bombay High Court that the pre-development work will take more than a year.
On Monday, CIDCO had opened the financial bid, which MIAL won with its offer to share 12.6% of the revenue with the development corporation, as compared to 10.44% offered by GMR.
CIDCO informed the Division Bench led by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G.S. Kulkarni that it had rehabilitated seven villages and also had to divert a river as part of the pre-development work for the airport. The corporation said most villagers had given their consent to be relocated, while some had already been shifted.
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CIDCO was responding to a public interest litigation filed by Ratnagiri resident Mangesh Chavan, who had raised doubts over the bidding process and sought a stay on the proceedings. Mr. Chavan had claimed that CIDCO had divided the development of the airport into four parts, and had therefore separated the pre-development work from the main work of the airport’s development.
The petition alleged that three of the bidders withdrew from the process of bidding citing conflict of interest, because CIDCO had granted the contract for pre-development work to one of the four bidders.
Mr. Chavan had approached the High Court in the wake of newspaper reports suggesting irregularities in the bidding process. The court, however, allowed the PIL to be withdrawn after noticing that CIDCO had taken adequate precautions and decided to link the pre-development work with the main development work, thus removing the conflict of interest apprehended by some of the bidders.
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