GMR Airports Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, said it won the contract to develop, operate and manage the new international airport of Heraklion at Crete in partnership with a Greek company.
GMR Airports Limited will be the designated Airport Operator in the consortium for this project. Heraklion Airport, located in Crete, is the 2nd largest in Greece.
The existing Heraklion Airport is handling over 6 million passengers annually and is facing capacity constraint. The new Kastelli Airport, once completed, will replace Heraklion airport, the company said.
“The scope of the project involves Design, Construction, Financing, Operation, and Maintenance & Exploitation of the New Heraklion Crete International Airport,” it said.
The concession period for the Greenfield project will be 35 years including Phase 1 Construction of 5 years.
The company, which operates the Delhi and Hyderabad airports in India, has tied up with local infrastructure major TERNA, a unit of GEK TERNA Group, for the project.
“The airport is in line with the asset lite strategy we have adopted for overseas expansion and will see GMR participate in project management and commercial management in addition to airport operations,” said Srinivas Bommidala, Business Chairman, GMR Airports.
This will be GMR Group’s second foray into Europe after having developed Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport. It is also developing Mactan Cebu International Airport in Philippines.
The company said it expects to complete necessary documentation and concession signing over the next few months.
Besides airports, the New Delhi-based GMR group has fifteen power generation projects of which ten are operational and five are under development and nine operating road assets and a double rail track line between Mughalsarai-New Bhaupur (Kanpur) of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor under development.