Media Talk Says India Entity Eyeing Kasteli Airport
India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd may be submitting a bid for the Kasteli airport, to be constructed on the island of Crete, according to the latest media reports.
With headquarters in Bengaluru, the company operates New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad and is active in power generation, mining and exploration, highway and infrastructure development, as well as development and maintenance of airports, among others.
According to sources cited by Reuters, GMR has requested and received special authorization from India’s Civil Aviation Ministry to participate in the international bidding contest for the development of an Heraklion airport.
Besides the infrastructure projects in India, GMR Group also has a global presence with assets and projects in several countries including Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, the Maldives and the Philippines, where it operates the Mactan Cebu Airport.
Kasteli airport, a 850-million-euro project, is set to be operational in 2018 and expected to become Greece’s fourth-biggest airport in terms of traffic, replacing Crete’s outdated Nikos Kazantzakis airport in Heraklion.