Purandar Airport: MADC Buys a Consultant to Write the PPP

The tender Maharashtra Airport Development Company published on 22 October is not an airport contract. It is a contract to write the concession.

What MADC Is Procuring

MADC wants a consultant in place by 18 November to deliver a techno-economic feasibility study and then run the selection of a private partner for the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje Greenfield International Airport at Purandar.

Part A — demand and cargo forecasts, master plan, cost estimates, statutory clearances, airspace integration — gets five months.

Part B — bid documents, negotiations, concession agreement — gets three.

Pre-bid meeting on 4 November.

The Gaps Part B Must Fill

MADC has land. Roughly 1,250 hectares across Ekhatpur, Khanvadi, Kumbharvalan, Munjavadi, Pargaon, Udachiwadi and Vanpuri, near Saswad.

It does not have:

- a concession term
- a tariff position
- a risk allocation
- a chosen PPP variant

All four get decided inside Part B, by whoever wins Part A.

That sequencing puts the commercial risk on the state rather than on whichever concessionaire eventually signs.

Eligibility Narrows the Field

The eligibility bar is doing quiet work. One Code E or larger greenfield airport feasibility study or DPR in the past decade, plus average annual consultancy turnover of Rs 200 crore across FY2022-23 to FY2024-25.

The turnover clause removes the airport-planning specialists.

Realistically the field narrows to RITES, AECOM India, Egis India and Tata Consulting Engineers, with a few multidisciplinary peers of similar balance sheet.

The Land Ceiling

Land is the harder ceiling.

At 1,250 hectares, Purandar supports a single Code 4E runway, terminal and city side with almost no headroom.

Noida International at Jewar took 1,334 hectares for phase one against a 5,000-hectare plan.

Non-aeronautical and aero-city revenue is what lets Adani Airport Holdings or GMR Airports bid hard on aeronautical charges.

Purandar's land quantum shrinks that lever before a single bidder appears.

The Clearances That Will Run the Programme

Two clearances will run the programme, not the consultant's five-month clock: Indian Air Force airspace sharing with Lohegaon, roughly 35 km north, and a funded surface link from Pune.

Who Wins Part A

Watch who wins Part A. A firm with concession ambitions will draft Part B around a delivery model it can execute or joint-venture into.