The GMR-Malaysia Airports combine has won the contract for building and expanding the airport at Male in the Maldives for about $300 million (Rs 1,390 crore).
The GMR group, which is nearing completion in building the eighth largest airport terminal in the world in Delhi, with a floor space of 5.4 million sq ft, pipped two strong contenders from India. One was the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group with Mexico Airports Aeropuertos and the other the GVK-Lughafen Zurich AG combine.
The Maldives government had invited bids to build a new terminal at the Malé International Airport that would have a capacity of handling five million passengers annually, with 12 aircraft bays. This has to be completed by 2014 and would entail operation, maintenance, expansion, rehabilitation and modernisation of the existing airport. The mandate of the project is 25 years. MIA also includes a sea-plane port.
Three parties, namely, the Aeroport de Paris, France-TAV, Turkey, consortium, the Zurich Airport-GVK consortium and the GMR-MAHB consortium were invited by the government to take part in the keenly contested bid process, monitored by IFC, Washington.
Male International Airport, three km from the capital city of Male, at the island of Huhulé, is the largest airport in Maldives, with a traffic of over 2.5 million passengers every year. This is the second airport that GMR has taken up in the Maldives. They had previously signed an agreement to modernise and operate the Hanimaadhoo airport, in the northern islands.
In India, the GMR group has, besides the Delhi airport modernisation and expansion, to handle growth to 100 million by 2026, built the new Hyderabad airport. It also runs the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul, with a consortium of Limak Insaat and Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad. The group has also bid for the Goa airport, as well as the domestic airport in the Maldives.
