Bangalore: Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has provided a breather to the 1,800 employees working at the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in Male. It has said after GMR’s exit from the project, expected by December 7, most of the staff would be employed by the company, directly under the government of Maldives.
According to information available, 95 per cent of the employees are citizens of Maldives, while the rest are expatriates. It is understood their work permits wouldn’t be extended after the deadline to GMR Infrastructure. GMR Group officials, however, maintained their case was strong, adding they hoped the decision would be in their favour.
GMR Infrastructure has operated the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport for about three years.
Early this week, the Maldives government had terminated a GMR Infrastructure-led consortium’s contract to upgrade the Male airport, saying the fact that GMR was charging $25 as airport development fee was against the law in that country. It is also probing the framework under which the contract was signed.
01/12/12 Business Standard
