Noida film city project: Four firms qualify for bidding process

Four companies have technically qualified to take part in the financial bidding process for the Film City project after the Uttar Pradesh government and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) committee completed the evaluation process on Saturday, officials aware of the development said on Sunday.

Yeida will open the financial bids on Tuesday to zero in on one company, which will be engaged in the development of the proposed project on 1,000 acres of land in Sector 21 near Noida International airport site. However, the final nod will come from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet after Yeida selects the final bidder, said Yeida officials.

The four companies that have qualified are Bayview Projects LLP of film-maker Boney Kapoor, Lions Films Private Limited of KC Bokadia, Supersonic Technobuild Private Limited of actor Akshay Kumar and Super Cassettes Industries Private Limited of T-Series. The four firms offered their presentation about their development model and other details of their respective projects on Saturday before the committee that was headed by Manoj Kumar Singh, the additional chief secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government and state’s infrastructure and industrial development committee.

Yeida chairman Anil Sagar, Uttar Pradesh director for information Shishir and Yeida chief executive officer Arun Vir Singh were among the other officials who were present during the presentation. It was an unanimous decision on the qualification of all the four companies. Boney Kapoor, KC Bokadia, Akshay Kumar and T-Series representatives joined the meeting to share their vision, concept of development, highlights and the timelines under which the project will be completed on the ground. Except for T-series, the three companies are a consortium of film-makers and Noida-based developers, who will fund the project if they are selected. Actor Akshay Kumar gave an online presentation, while representatives of the remaining three firms joined the meeting in the Yeida’s sector Omega I office.

“We will open the financial bid and finalise the bidder on the basis of merit as per rules. Once one company will be finalised, the UP government will take the final call on it as per procedures. As the four companies have qualified technically, we hope that the work on the film city project will take off soon,” said Arun Vir Singh, chief executive officer of Yeida.

On September 30 last year, Yeida opened a global tender inviting bids from film-makers interested in the project and develop the film city at Sector 21. It had fixed January 5, 2024 as the last date to submit bids.

In phase-1, the company finalised will be tasked to develop the film city project on 230 acres of land. Yeida has earmarked a total of 1,000 acres of land in Sector 21 for this ambitious project.

As per the Detailed Project Report (DPR), the developer will have to pay ₹144 crore as security money before development begins at the site. The high-level committee, headed by UP chief secretary DS Mishra, has approved the DPR for the progress on this crucial project. The developer will get 90 years to develop this project spread on 1,000 acres in Sector 21 located in close proximity to Jewar airport site, the DPR said.

According to the DPR, it is ₹7,210 crore project and the committee had allowed the OTT platforms to apply for this project. The Yeida had hired Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis — an American commercial real estate services and investment firm — as consultant for the DPR on January 8, 2021, after UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced that his government will develop another film city to encourage film production in the state.