GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) has signed a concession agreement under the Government of India’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN ( Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik ) Scheme to commission, operationalize, and maintain the civilian enclave at the Bidar Airport in North Karnataka.
First commercial flight soon
GHIAL is expected to start operations soon with one daily flight connecting Bidar with Bengaluru. “The operationalization of Bidar airport is a testimony to our commitment to support the Regional Connectivity Scheme. We are very pleased to partner with the Government of Karnataka to support efforts for all-round development Bidar and nearby regions and we are confident that the start of commercial operations will provide a boost to the local economy,” said executive Director-South GMR Airports, and GHIAL CEO S.G.K. Kishore.
Located in the north-eastern part of Karnataka, Bidar city is the headquarters of the Bidar district and is home to important religious shrines and historic monuments including the Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib, one of the holiest sites of the Sikh religion. It is also renowned for Bidriware metal handicraft products which have been recognized with the coveted Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
One more station code
GMR Group’s Airport portfolio has around 325 million passenger capacity in operation and under development, that includes India’s busiest Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Mactan Cebu International Airport in partnership with Megawide in Philippines.
Further, greenfield projects under development include Airport at Mopa in Goa, and Airport at Heraklion, Crete, Greece in partnership with GEK Terna. The GMR-Megawide consortium has also won the Clark International Airport’s EPC project, the second project in Philippines.
Grounding more
The Group recently received a Letter of Intent for development and operations of Nagpur Airport on a PPP basis and development and operation of greenfield airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh. GMR Group is developing very unique airport cities on the commercial land available around its airports in Delhi, Hyderabad and Goa.
