July 05, 2008

GMR consortium receives license for Turkish airport

It is reported that Hyderabad based GMR group, in association with two others, received a 20 year license to operate the airport in the Turkish capital and agreed to reduce the duration for building the terminal from the agree time of 30 months to 18 months.

The license given to the consortium called Sabiha Gokcen, comprising GMR Infrastructure Ltd, a Turkish firm and a Malaysian company, includes building an international terminal at a cost of INR 1,575 crore and operating it within that airport, called Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.

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.

Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish Prime Minister, at a groundbreaking ceremony for international terminal, however, asked the consortium to reduce the duration for building the terminal from 30 to 18 months. He said that "We cannot wait that long and wanted the terminal to be ready by October 29th 2009, which is Turkey’s Republic Day."

Mr GM Rao chairman of GMR Group said that "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." He added that 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.