We are honouring the Singapore Court order: GMR
official
The Maldives government formally took charge of the GMR-operated Ibrahim
Nasir International Airport here on Thursday midnight and handed it over to the
Maldives Airport Company Limited (MACL).
At a ceremony organised by the government just before midnight, the
project’s guarantor, the Finance Ministry, took over from GMR. “It’s a smooth
transition. There will be no problems,” said Masood Imad, Media Secretary to
President Mohamed Waheed.
“We are not handing over. They are taking over,” said GMR spokesperson
Arun Bhagat. Asked to elaborate, he said a handing over would have been
willingly carried out. This was not the case here. “We are honouring the
Singapore Court order.”
GMR said there would be no disruptions despite the issues it had with
the government. The process of taking over of an airport was complex and could
not be completed in a day. MACL would require at least a month for complete
control.
“There will be no disruption of services or flights,” Mr. Bhagat said.
Tourism is the largest revenue earner for the country and this is the
peak season.
A scheduled runway re-carpeting work will be taken up as scheduled from
around 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Saturday, and airlines have been given advance
notice. A few flights have been re-scheduled owing to this. There have been no
cancellations so far.
To maintain a seamless transition, MACL has offered to retain all Indian
employees too, and stick to the payment conditions of GMR. Each month, GMR had
disbursed 50 per cent of the salary of local employees in U.S. dollars. In a
dollar-starved country, this was an additional incentive for Maldivians working
at the airport.
Meanwhile, GMR continued to explore its legal options. “The legal
position is not yet clear. The judge spoke about expropriation, which means
compensation has to be given. But it is too early to talk about this,” said Mr.
Bhagat.
GMR, which has a 77 per cent stake in the airport (Malaysia Airports
Holdings Berhad holds the remaining stake), was awarded the contract in 2010 to
operate the airport for 25 years. Maldives terminated the contract on November
27. On December 1, it gave seven days to GMR to hand over the airport.
· Maldives
Airport Company Limited begins operations
· MACL to
retain all Indian employees
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