Seventeen top consultancy firms including Ernst and Young, Mott MacDonald, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Edges India are in the race for the four new airports to be built in Gujarat.
 
 These firms recently submitted their bids for these proposed airports that can handle mid-sized airplanes at Palitana, Ambaji, Dwarka and Ankleshwar. Officials from State Aviation Department said this was a technical bidding and by February 15, the evaluation report will be out. Thereafter, financial bidding will be held.
 
 At present, the state has 17 airports (excluding the two at Daman and Diu), which makes it the state with the largest number of operational airports in the country.
 
 “Gujarat is going to be the first state to start developing four airports at one go. The purpose is to boost religious tourism as well as providing infrastructure for the industries,” said Ajay Chauhan, Director of state’s Civil Aviation Department.