GMR Infrastructure wins Istanbul 2nd airport bid

A consortium of Malaysia Airports Holdings, India's GMR Infrastructure and Turkey's Limak won the rights to Istanbul's second airport on Monday with a 1.9 billion-euro bid. The winning bid -which does not include 18 percent value added tax -beat offers from four other consortiums of foreign and local players in a tender lasting more than 12 hours. The consortium will build a new international terminal at the Sabiha Gokcen Airport on Istanbul's Asian side and run the airport for 20 years. Sources said that the design of the project is previously announced to tender participants. It will expand annual capacity by 10 million passengers which is currently 3.5 million. "Istanbul needed a second airport and we will serve that need,'' said Limak's Nihat Ozdemir.