"It will be operational by the first quarter of 2008," Kiran Kumar Grandhi, HIAL managing director said on Tuesday.
Announcing the financial closure of the airport project, he said the debt syndication for the Rs 1,663 crore (Rs 16.63 billion) project with a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.2:1 has GMR 63 per cent, Malaysia Airports 11 per cent, AAI 13 per cent and Andhra Pradesh government 13 per cent.
The debt totalling Rs 960 crore (Rs 9.6 billion) was tied up with IDFC as the lead lender with Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), while seven other public sector banks extended Rs 760 crore (Rs 7.6 billion) as term loan, he said.
The airport, which is coming up at Shamshabad near Hyderabad on a 5,500 acre land, is expected to handle seven million passengers in the first phase and could be expanded to handle about 40 million passengers a year in future.