GMR eyeing airport projects in Asia and Eastern Europe

GMR Group, which operates three airports in India and abroad, is eyeing projects in South East Asia, Middle East and Eastern European countries besides looking for operations and maintenance of Jaipur and Ahmedabad aerodromes.

"Airport business, going forward, can be a significant growth engine for the group. In line with our growth strategy, the Group is actively pursuing suitable airport opportunities in India as well as globally," GMR said in its latest annual report.

"Domestically, the Group is exploring upcoming opportunities for the development of Nagpur Airport and O&M opportunity of Jaipur and Ahmedabad Airports. On the global front, it has pre-qualified for development and operation of Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade, Serbia, Norman Manley airport in Jamaica.

"Apart from the aforementioned opportunities, the Group is selectively exploring new opportunities in South East Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe," the company said.

Currently GMR's airport business comprises of 3 operating airports -Delhi and Hyderabad International Airports in India and Mactan Cebu International Airport in Philippines.

It has also bagged contract for the Greenfield airport at Mopa in Goa.

GMR Airports Limited, subsidiary of the Company, along with local partner GEK TERNA, has been selected as Preferred Bidder to develop the new greenfield airport at Kastelli, Crete in Greece.

The company said that its Hyderabad International Airport is in the process of expanding the terminal capacity and adopting the new technology solutions to meet the future traffic demands and further improve the operational efficiency.

In this regard, GHIAL (GMR Hyderabad International Airport) has already completed the outline of its development plan and is likely to get approval from AERA by this year, on the extent of capital expenditure that GHIAL will be incurring on the expansion work, it said.

An Expert Appraisal Committee under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently accorded permission for GMR Group's proposal for the Rs 2,629 crore expansion plans of the Hyderabad airport and Rs 16,000 crore New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).