The licence given yesterday to the consortium, comprising GMR Infrastructure Ltd, a Turkish firm and a Malaysian company, includes building an international terminal at a cost of Rs 1,575 crore and operating it within that airport, called Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.
At a groundbreaking ceremony for international terminal here, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, asked the consortium to reduce the duration for building the terminal from 30 to 18 months.
"We cannot wait that long," Erdogan said, adding he wanted the terminal to be ready by October 29, 2009, which is the country's Republic Day.
The consortium, called Sabiha Gokcen, agreed to the new timeframe, but maintained that its estimation of cost would not change due to the modification.
"Rather, we will be able to reap revenues much faster since the airport will start functioning in a shorter period. We are ready to build it in 18 months," GMR Group Chairman G M Rao told reporters.
The new terminal will add an annual capacity of 10 million passengers to the existing 3 million passengers after it comes up, eventually rising to 45 million, Rao said.
The terminal will have a three-storey car park with a capacity for about 4,750 vehicles. A hotel with 60 rooms will also be built next to the terminal for flight crews, transit passengers and other guests.
