There is another feather in the GMR Group's cap. GMR is part of the consortium that has completed the new terminal of the Istanbul Airport in a record 18 months. Karma Paljor caught up with GM Rao, Chairman of GMR Group, to ask him how this task was accomplished.

Below are excerpts from the interview with GM Rao. Also watch the accompanying video.

We completed it in 18 months is because of the groups remarkable domain knowledge and civil construction in local. GMR has got developers’ expertise, IT system and also engineering, all the baggage handling and Malaysian Airport brought the operational excellence. Everybody was working 24x7. One main thing is that construction is mechanized in Turkey and because of the mechanism we have been able to complete it in so fast. However, 18 months was a big challenge because 5 million square feet building is double the size of the Hyderabad airport, three times bigger than the Bangalore airport. This terminal building, 128 room hotel and 4,700 multilevel car parking and VIP lounge was a big challenge and this has happened because of three people partnership.

Q: You have broken the record here. In Hyderabad also you were extremely quick but Delhi should be your showpiece, isn’t it. But we are told by our sources on the ground in Delhi that it’s not the case. You are behind schedule as far as the Delhi airport is concerned, why is that?

A: I don’t know why this rumour has spread. We are not at all behind schedule. Delivering promise is one of our values. In fact, we have built the 4.4 km runway six months ahead of the schedule and Delhi is the world’s second largest airport with 78 aerobridges––we are building within time.