Male: The Maldives government finalised plans Friday to seize the country’s main airport from an Indian firm, sparking a diplomatic crisis with its giant neighbour which has threatened to cut off aid.
The administration of President Mohammad Waheed last week decided to revoke a 25-year lease of the airport serving the capital, asking infrastructure firm GMR to quit by midnight Friday (1900 GMT), two years after it took over operations.
“There is no turning back, we will start running the airport from Friday night,” Waheed’s spokesman Imad Masoud told AFP from Male, the capital of the country known as an upmarket honeymoon destination and celebrity hang-out.
“We will retain all staff. Even the Indian staff have been told that they can remain if they want to and have the same salary,” he added.
Officials have also sought to reassure travellers they will be unaffected.
“We have already spoken to international airlines and assured them that there will be no disruptions,” Mohammad Ebrahim, managing director of the Maldivian Airport Company, told AFP.
“We will have a seamless takeover of the airport from the GMR,” Ebrahim said.
There was little comment from GMR which on Thursday lost a legal battle in Singapore, where the Supreme Court ruled the Maldivian government had the right to take back the airport.
“At the moment things are calm,” GMR spokesman Arun Bhagat told AFP, declining further comment.
Corruption
The privatisation of the airport in 2010 has been targeted by Waheed over alleged corruption and for patriotic reasons, with the new government objecting to such a prominent national asset being run by foreigners.
There has been fury in India over the abrupt move to nationalise the airport and the proposal has also raised serious concerns for foreign investors at a time when the Maldives is seeking external funding.
The Male airport deal was expected to see GMR and its partner, Malaysia Airports Holdings, pour more than $500 million (Dh1.8 billion) into the Indian Ocean archipelago, in what would have been the biggest ever foreign investment.
New Delhi warned its tiny south-western neighbour earlier this week that it may freeze aid and was ready to “take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of its interests and its nationals”.
The row has caused a reassessment in the Indian foreign ministry of Waheed, who took power in controversial circumstances last February when president Mohammad Nasheed was forced out by protests and a mutiny by police officers.
India’s concerns
Nasheed, the first freely elected Maldivian leader and an ally of India, claimed his then vice-president Waheed was part of a “coup”, but New Delhi declined to intervene and gave its blessing to Waheed’s ascent.
Underpinning India’s concerns are claims by the Maldivian opposition that the country is tilting towards China, which set up an embassy in Male last year and is carrying out construction projects in the archipelago.
Waheed’s office denies any suggestion of Chinese influence.
“The airport is our gateway to the world. It is a matter of national pride and ego and we want to manage it ourselves,” Masoud said.
Under the original privatisation deal, GMR paid $78 million as a one-time fee to manage the airport for 25 years.
The Indian firm, which runs the new airport in New Delhi among others, was to pay the Maldivian government 1.0 per cent of all airport revenues until 2014 and 10 per cent thereafter. An investment of $510 million was envisaged.
However, a court ruling scuttled a vital part of the deal which allowed GMR to levy a fee of $25 on each passenger. The government then agreed to reimburse GMR the $25 charges.
