Pre-feasibility study for a greenfield airport in Vadhavan Port area has been initiated and a report on the same is expected to be completed in six to nine months, officials aware of the development said.
Earlier this month, a joint venture of Grant Thornton and Nippon Nippon Koei India emerged as the successful bidders to prepare the pre-feasibility report for Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd, an undertaking of Government of Maharashtra.
“The site visit has already been undertaken and the work has started and the pre-feasibility report is expected to be completed in six to nine months,” an official said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier announced that the government will undertake development of a new airport near the ambitious Vadhavan Port project currently being undertaken along the coastline of Palghar district in western Maharashtra.
The government plans to integrate the proposed airport with all-weather greenfield deep draft Vadhavan Port, in an effort to create a major logistics and trade hub, which will also include connectivity to one of India’s largest warehousing zones located in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi.
Vadhavan Port area will be connected with dedicated rail and road infrastructure and the planned airport will add another mode of transportation enabling a holistic multimodal development of the region.
According to the government, the Vadhavan Port, a deep-draft port located on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), is projected to enhance India’s container handling capacity by 23.2 million TEUs and will be instrumental in elevating India’s position amongst global maritime hubs.
