By Nasriah Darus, NNN-Bernama
New Delhi : GMR Group, one of India’s leading infrastructure companies with interests in energy, roads and airports, plans to team up with Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) and other partners to bid for the development of airports in Chennai and Prague.
Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) associate vice-president for corporate communications, Arun Arora, said here Wednesday that the bids to build the two airports were expected to open this year.
“We plan to work with MAHB. We believe in building a strong relationship with our partners,” he told the Malaysian media here.
DIAL is a joint venture company consisting of GMR Group, Fraport AG of Germany, Malaysia Airports, India Development Fund and the Airport Authority of India. It has the mandate to operate, manage and develop the Indira Gandhi International Airport here for 30 years till 2036, with an option to extend by a further 30 years.
DIAL is operating the Indian capital’s international airport under the public-private partnership initiative of the government of India.
Eraman Malaysia, a retail arm of MAHB, has a 10 per cent equity in the 7.5 billion USD Indira Gandhi International Airport modernization project covering five phases.
The airport’s 4.43-km runway is the longest in Asia and can accommodate the latest super jumbo Airbus A380 aircraft.
The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in March 2010. Arun said GMR picked MAHB as its partner because of cultural factors in that both countries shared Asian values.
“We are culturally aligned and it is important to manage the people. You can buy any equipment but when it comes to managing the people, you need cultural alignment,” he said.
He said the partnership with MAHB started in 2000 when they jointly bid with other partners for the Hyderabad airport project.