Varaha Wins Dholera Airport Phase 1’s Construction Work
Varaha Infa has emerged as the lowest bidder to construct Phase 1 of Dholera International Airport in Gujarat after Airports Authority of India (AAI) opened financial bids on Thursday.
This new greenfield airport will be capable of handling 1.5 million passengers per year after the completion of its Phase 1 in 2025 and has been designed to ultimately handle 50 million passengers per year after its final phase – see project information.
Like all new airport projects, Phase 1 civil works involve construction of the airport’s infrastructure including runways, taxiways, aprons and road network. AAI invited tenders for this package in February with an estimated cost of Rs. 986.91 crore and 840 day (2.3 year) completion deadline.
Technical bids were opened on June 9 to reveal 17 bidders and bid evaluation was completed in just 2 weeks – something that would be unimaginable in the metro rail industry for a high value contract like this.
Financial Bid Values:
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| Varaha Infra | 636.45 |
| Khurana Engineering | 693.45 |
| Ashoka Buildcon | 735.00 |
| Patel Infrastructure | 739.78 |
| KMC Constructions | 754.23 |
| PNC Infratech | 756.00 |
| HG Infra | 799.11 |
| Larsen & Toubro (L&T) | 819.01 |
| Afcons Infrastructure | 834.92 |
| CDS Infra Projects | 949.00 |
| Dilip Buildcon | 857.07 |
| Gawar Construction | 905.00 |
| DRA Infracon | 917.19 |
| ITD Cementation | 942.41 |
| Gayatri Projects | 1019.71 |
| BSCPL | 1076.67 |
| APCO Infratech | 1132.90 |
Package: AAI/CHQ/ENGG/DHOLERA/PH-I/RWY
Brief Scope: Detailed Designing, Engineering, Procurement and Construction of Airport infrastructure of operational area for 4E category operation of Airport i.e. Runway, Taxiway, Apron, Perimeter Road etc., including associated Electrical works.
Varaha’s bid of Rs. 636.45 crore was 35.5% lower than AAI’s budgeted estimate and they should be awarded Phase 1’s contract in the coming weeks. I’ve never heard of Varaha, but see they’ve executed highway projects in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Design of the airport’s terminal building has not been finalized. A tender notice for it (Phase 2) is currently pending. Here’s the layout of the airport’s infrastructure and apron area from Phase 1’s tender docs:
As shared earlier – the airport’s 1426 hectare site at Navagam village (view on google maps) is located north of Dholera Smart City & Bhavanagar, and south of Ahmedabad. In the future, the airport will be connected to Ahmedabad through the under construction 109 km Ahmedabad – Dholera Expressway.
The airport will have two runways (3200 m and 4000 m long) and also feature an aerocity with 75 hectares for commercial development.
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– TMRG
