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:

FirmBid (Rs. Crore)
Varaha Infra636.45
Khurana Engineering693.45
Ashoka Buildcon735.00
Patel Infrastructure739.78
KMC Constructions754.23
PNC Infratech756.00
HG Infra799.11
Larsen & Toubro (L&T)819.01
Afcons Infrastructure834.92
CDS Infra Projects949.00
Dilip Buildcon857.07
Gawar Construction905.00
DRA Infracon917.19
ITD Cementation942.41
Gayatri Projects1019.71
BSCPL1076.67
APCO Infratech1132.90

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.

For more updates, check out my Home Page!

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

8 Responses to "Varaha Wins Dholera Airport Phase 1’s Construction Work"

  1. MANOJ PANDA says:

    Please review what you have written
    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????
    This is not a Metro Rail Project and neither it’s a high value contract.

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Just drawing a comparison here of how vastly different both industries are.

      I consider anything over 100+ crore as a high-value contract.

      100-1000: High
      1000-5000: Large
      5000 & above: Mega

      Reply
  2. Alec says:

    Though it is good to see companies bidding at such low values compared to government estimates, care should be taken to see companies are doing quality work and at the same time should not be suffering loses.

    Reply
  3. Ravinder Singh says:

    This company belongs to a chief engineer of Govt of Rajasthan.after retirement he joined full time.
    Using his contact he regularly getting some of the Big projects in Rajasthan only.Other than Rajasthan they doesn’t have so much exp in working.
    They quoted 35% below the Estimated cost .
    How they are going to do that only answer is by not deploying good professional and by Detroiting quality of projects.
    Their should be question asked to vendor by govt agencies mention below:-
    1.Cost of product cement,steel,etc is increasing how they will manage??
    2.Inflation is increasing then how thier unit price of item decreases.
    And many mores.

    Reply
  4. Sunil Chandnani says:

    More than 25% variation either side of estimate is always doubtful. Let’s wait and see how completion is achieved.

    Reply
  5. Manoranjan kumar says:

    I am mechanical engineer.i want to work

    Reply
  6. Devendra Singh Rajawat says:

    I am contractor for all tipe work, and my side only manpower working

    Reply
  7. Shyam Singh Rajawat says:

    Vaccancy for medical nursing staff or safety supervisor…plz reply as soon as possible…10 years of experience in both fields.thank you…

    Reply

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