Noida Authority's Heliport Project At Sector 151A Finds Just One Bidder, Again

After floating the global tender for the second time, the Noida Authority has again received a lone bid for the ambitious heliport project in Sector 151A.

A Bengaluru-based company which had submitted the lone application in the first round of tender issued in early 2022, is still the only firm to have shown interest in the global tender floated for the project in December 2022.

The firm was disqualified on technical grounds in the first round, but has cleared the technical bid in its second attempt this March.

The greenfield project involves constructing a heliport at Sector 151A in Noida near Kambakshpur Village to boost the development in the region around Noida Expressway.

The heliport site is located about 18 km from City Centre, via Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and is approximately 47 km away from the upcoming Noida international Airport (NIA) at Jewar and 7 km from Yamuna Expressway.

Through this project, the authority plans to connect the city to the various important religious places and tourist destinations such as Vaishno Devi Temple (Katra), Mount Abu, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Ayodhya, Chandigarh, Mathura, Agra etc.

It will also help in providing helicopter operations from the city to Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi, and other hilly regions of the country.

The heliport is to be spread over an area of 9.3 acres, and will have one helipad. The helipad will allow commercial operations of 12-seater Bell-412 and 26-seater MI-172 or equivalent helicopters.

Also, a passenger terminal building will come up in 500 square metre and would be equipped to handle 20 departing and 20 arriving passengers per hour.

The authority has appointed Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) for the preparation of a detailed project report, bid documents and assistance during the bidding process to select a developer.

Change in Tender Conditions

Noida Authority officials said they did not make major changes to the technical and financial terms in the bid documents. The Authority made certain changes in lease rent and construction time frame in order to attract more players in the second round.

The Authority is now in the process of opening the financial bid, which will have to be pre-approved by the state government’s PPP bid-evaluation committee.

“We plan to send the file to the bid-evaluation committee by May-end. Our consultant RITES has readied a reply on the project technicalities and this will be put before the Noida CEO before being sent to the committee. If the company also passes the financial bid round, it would be directed to start the project,” a Noida Authority official said.

PPP Framework

The upcoming greenfield heliport will be developed through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

According to the concessionaire agreement, the concessionaire shall have the exclusive right to construct, operate and maintain the project for a period of 30 years.

The concessionaire shall be required to construct helipads, taxiways, apron, helicopter parking bays, Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and passenger terminal buildings.

The total project value is at around Rs 43 crore, with the land value at Rs 22.7 crore. The construction of the heliport is to be completed within 450 days from the date of award of the tender. The concessionaire will have to share its revenue on per passenger basis with the authority during the Concession Period.