Cornered by court, politics, GMR says will hand over airport ops at midnight to Maldives
the Government of Maldives, keeping in mind the judgement of the aforementioned court and the concession agreement dated 28th June 2010," the company statement said.
It added, "All actions as above are without prejudice to our legal rights and statements made before various courts/tribunals where matters are currently being pursued or likely to be taken up".
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In 2010, GMR-led consortium won the right to build and operate the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) for 25 years, which is extendable by another 10 years.
The deal was signed during the regime of previous government headed by Mohamed Nasheed.
But after the regime change in February, GMR had been facing an uphill task.
The current government in Male headed by President Mohamed Waheed says the contract was signed under "dubious" conditions and was "void", a charge hotly denied by the Indian firm.
A number of anti-GMR rallies were organised in Male by certain right-wing coalition partners of the current regime.
Anti-Indian statements also seeped into the protests that were held in the Indian ocean archipelago.
The Male airport venture has been the most profitable for GMR in terms of its airports business segment. The company has so far invested about USD 250 million on managing and upgrading the facilities at the Male airport.
The bone of contention between GMR and Maldivian government is levy of an Airport Development Charge (ADC) of USD 25 per passenger and USD 2 per passenger insurance surcharge. The levy was supposed to be charged from January
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