Maldives invests MVR1.3 million per day in the country's main airport, economic minister Mohamed Saeed said Tuesday.
Speaking during a ceremony to install a new body scanning machine at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) Saeed said around USD90 million had been invested in the airport in the past three years which amounts to MVR1.3 million per day.
"Why have we been doing this? When we took over the airport, the runway was in really bad shape. If we hadn't developed the north apron our tourism industry would have suffered. There was no way to build a new runway in the old plan. That's how GMR had drawn up the plan. But under president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's initiative MACL is now building a new runway," Saeed who is also the co-chair of the national economic council said.
The Maldives government had entered a 25-year contract to modernize, expand and operate the Maldives’ main international airport with GMR Male International Airport Pvt. Ltd. in 2010.
The mega project worth over USD500 million was awarded to GMR during the tenure of former President Mohamed Nasheed, despite concerns by the then opposition.
Shortly after the controversial resignation of Nasheed, the government kicked out GMR and cancelled its lucrative contract to run the airport.
The government has maintained that the contract was invalid in November 2012 after the parties fell into dispute over a fee GMR imposed on departing passengers, which the government said was contrary to Maldivian law.
Current airport operator Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) had awarded the development of INIA’s new runway to Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) of China, with UAE’s Gulf Cobla as its subcontractor for the land reclamation.
The USD 373 million (MVR 5.7 billion) project to develop a second runway in INIA aims to establish a new runway measuring 3,400 metres in length and 60 metres in width. The project includes development of a new cargo terminal with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes and a fuel farm with a storage of 45 million litres.
Minister Saeed also noted that the airport expansion project would yield more employment opportunities for locals.
Maldives government meanwhile has been asked to pay nearly USD250 million in damages to India's infrastructure giant GMR by an international arbitration tribunal over the abrupt termination of the contract to operate the archipelago's main airport.
The Singapore based tribunal had in February ruled in favour of the GMR group of companies on its dispute with the Maldives government on the airport project.
Attorney General Mohamed Anil Thursday, read out a statement which said the tribunal had ruled that the government must pay USD208 million in damages and interest on the figure.
