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An artist’s impression of the ambitious new Hyderabad International Airport village |
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GHIAL Chief Operating Officer T Srinagesh is a seasoned campaigner in developing and driving big infrastructure projects |
INDIA. GMR Group is stepping up its airport development plans in India, making a series of awards covering commercial, aeronautical and related activities.
Last week saw a landmark moment with the awarding of the Hyderabad International Airport retail tender to a partnership between The Nuance Group of Switzerland and Shoppers’ Stop of India.
Following that development The Moodie Report presents this background report on GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.
All change – from Hyderabad to Delhi
GMR Group is developing the upcoming Greenfield airport in Hyderabad, which is expected to be operational by March 2008.
The group has also won the mandate for modernisation of New Delhi International Airport, which is expected to be ready by 2010.
The GMR projects are two of the four Indian airport contracts awarded under the government’s Public-Private-Partnership Initiative – the other two projects being at Bangalore (greenfield) and Mumbai (modernisation).
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) is a joint venture company owned by GMR Infrastructure (63%); Malaysian Airports Holding Berhad (11 %), Airports Authority of India (13%) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh (13%). It has been mandated to develop a world-class international airport on around 5,500 acres in Shamshabad.
GHIAL’s business development and commercial function is being driven by Chief Operating Officer T Srinagesh, 49, a graduate from IIT Madras, where he specialised in Chemical Engineering. He also gained a PGDMA (MBA) from IIM Bangalore in finance.
Prior to his present assignment he had 25 years experience in the business community. He began his career with Indian Aluminium Company (Indal) as a Senior Process Engineer, then moved to NTPC, the leading central government utility, as Senior Manager.
Srinagesh was responsible for the development and financing of the Rihand project and the acquisition of the Talcher Power Project. He also drove the establishment of the first Independent Power Project (IPP) in India.
Srinagesh was also the Head of ABB Structured Finance and Equity Ventures for South Asia, and successfully executed many generation and transmission projects in India and South East Asia.
That expertise is being put to good use in his current role as a bright new aviation era dawns in Hyderabad.
Recent GHIAL contracts awarded
4 April 2007: GHIAL awards the concession to operate retail at both the international and domestic terminals to a partnership between The Nuance Group and Shoppers’ Stop. The international retail will be managed by Nuance Group (India) Private Limited, the joint venture company of The Nuance Group and Shoppers’ Stop, whereas Shoppers’ Stop’s Airport Division will handle retail in the domestic part.
30 November 2006: GHIAL ties up with Accor Hotels and Resorts, Singapore, to operate its first Business Hotel at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad. The construction of the hotel will commence shortly and become operational by the time the new international airport opens in March, 2008. Accor operates in nearly 100 countries with 160,000 employees and is expanding rapidly in India with up to 100 hotels planned for the next decade.
18 October 2006: Responding to the phenomenal growth of over +40% in air traffic in Hyderabad in the last few years, GHIAL decides to create additional facilities to cater for 12 million passengers at the time of commencement of its first phase operations in March, 2008.
These include increasing aircraft parking stands to 42 bays from the current 30, two rapid exit taxiways, and full length parallel taxiways for enabling quick turn around for aircraft.
Also included in the new facilities are additional office space for airlines, extra cargo terminal space, and additional car parking.
To ensure effective service standards, enhanced seating facilities, extra immigration desks, self check-in kiosks, bus gate lounges, trolleys etc are also being added to cater to the growing passenger demand.
11 September 2006: GHIAL enters into an inflight catering concession with LSG Sky Chef and Sky Gourmet.
The contracts are awarded for setting up world-class inflight catering units in the upcoming international airport. The concessions will be extensively involved in financing, constructing, operating and maintaining inflight kitchen facilities at GHIAL. Both the inflight catering units will offer 7,500 meals per day capacity in the initial phase.
LSG Sky Chef is a 100% subsidiary of Lufthansa. It is the world’s largest provider of airline catering and inflight solution and caters for 270 airlines from 190 customer service centers in 49 countries. It produces around 369 million airline meals per year. In India it is currently operating in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Sky Gourmet Catering Pvt. Ltd. operates under the trade name of Skygourmet and is one of the leading airline catering companies in India, with operations spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune.
MORE ON GMR GROUP
Second success for Nuance and Shoppers’ Stop alliance as it wins Hyderabad retail tender – 04/04/07
Alpha-Pantaloon partnership wins Delhi Airport duty free contract – 15/11//06
