"We have to pay a license fee of 1.93 billion euros (USD 2.57 billion) and we will invest 400 million euros in the beginning as part of the project cost," GMR CFO Madhu Terdal told PTI on Tuesday.
The GMR Infrastructure Limited-led consortium faced stiff competition from Fraport, Venice Airport, Chicago Airport and two other local companies.
The consortium, in which GMR and Turkish firm Limak Insaat Sanayi own a 40 per cent stake each and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad the remaining 20 per cent, would develop the Sabiha Gokeen International Airport, which is the second one at Istanbul after the Attaturk Airport.
Terdal said his consortium won the bid after a "fierce competition" spread over 17 hours of continuous discussions and bidding.
"With this deal, we have made our first global footprint," Terdal said, adding that "we have to take over the Sabiha Gokeen airport within the next three months." He said Istanbul's main airport Attaturk has already reached its peak capacity of 20 million passengers.
The Sabiha Gokeen project to develop a new international terminal among other things would be built on build-operate-transfer basis, within 30 months, he said, adding that the BOT concession would be for 20 years.
The GMR-led consortium would also have to manage the existing domestic and international terminals till the new terminal is constructed. The existing terminal would become the domestic terminal once the new international terminal comes up, Terdal said.
The Sabiha Gokeen Airport currently has a total capacity to handle 3.5 million passengers per annum and had almost reached the saturation point of three million in 2006 and was growing at 50 per cent per annum, he said. The new terminal would enhance the capacity to 10 million passengers, the GMR CFO said.
