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Andhra Pradesh Airports Development Corporation (APDCL) has received seven responses to a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the development of a greenfield international airport in the state, located in the south-east of India. The estimated total investment of the project is INR42 billion (US$574.6 million).

To be located in Bhogapuram, 40km from Visakhapatnam, the largest city in the state, the airport is to be delivered by a private partner in three phases, on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis. After completion of the first phase, the airport will have capacity to handle six million passengers a year.

The second phase will double this capacity to 12 million passengers a year, and the third phase will increase annual handling capacity to 18 million passengers. The airport will have a separate cargo complex in order to cater to the growing need for air cargo services and facilities to support APCDL's ambition of creating a national maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hub. The concession period is 40 years, with a 20-year extension option.

The seven bidders are: 

• Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), operator of the international airport serving Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, in a joint venture with Mauritius-based I Investments.
• Essel Infraprojects, subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Essel Group, in a joint venture with Flughafen München GmbH, the operator of Munich Airport in Germany (second-busiest airport in the country).
• Flughafen Zürich, the operator of Zurich Airport in Switzerland (largest airport in the country), in consortium with an unnamed local bank.
• GVK, an Indian conglomerate active in the domestic airports sector through its Power & Infrastructure subsidiary. Currently developing a new airport in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region under a concession.
• GMR, a Bangalore-based infrastructure developer. Recently awarded concessions to upgrade and manage Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, located in Nagpur, Maharashtra (central India) and to build and operate a new international airport in Heraklion, Crete (Greece).
• The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in consortium with AviAlliance, an airport management company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.
• Mumbai-based Reliance Infrastructure in a joint venture with Incheon International Airport Corporation, operator of Incheon International Airport, the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area of South Korea.

APDCL published the RFQ in July, initially requesting qualifications be submitted before 24 August. This due date was pushed back multiple times, eventually to 16 October. APDCL reportedly plans to announce the winning bidder by the end of the month.