Maldives says won’t budge on GMR airport takeover
03 Dec 2012
Maldives today said it would take control of its international airport from GMR Infrastructure despite a stay on it by the Singapore high court and India's threat to freeze all aid to the island nation.
The High Court of Singapore today passed an order staying the Maldives government's decision to terminate the $511-million contract for developing the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport at Male, the single largest Indian FDI in Maldives.
India also announced a freeze on all aid to Maldives after its government today said its decision to take control of the international airport was final.
"We will continue the airport takeover and Inshallah next Saturday onwards MACL (Maldives Airport Company Ltd) will be running the airport," Mohamed Nazim, defence minister and acting transport minister, told a press conference in the capital Male today.
With the court stay order in its favour, GMR, meanwhile, said it would continue to operate the airport as normal.
"We have obtained an injunctive stay on the operations of that (contract termination) letter," said Arun Bhagat, spokesman for the GMR group.