Maldives wins airport dispute with India’s GMR

SINGAPORE/MALE (Reuters) The Maldives has won a court case allowing it to cancel a $511 million airport development contract with India GMR Infrastructure, clearing the way for it to take over its main airport.

An aerial picture of the airport in Maldives January 10, 2005. REUTERS/Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

The canada goose factory sale contract for Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, agreed canada goose uk shop in 2010, was the largest foreign investment in the south Asian tropical island chain famous for Canada Goose Online its luxury beach resorts popular with honeymooners and scuba divers.

But it buy canada goose jacket cheap has become embroiled in a bitter political argument, threatening to cloud foreign investor sentiment canada goose clearance sale towards a country seeking overseas cash for many of canada goose black friday sale its tourism projects.

Maldives government has the power buy canada goose jacket to do what women’s canada goose outlet canada goose uk black friday it wants, including Canada Goose sale expropriating the airport, Sundaresh Menon, the cheap Canada Goose Chief Justice of Singapore, said in court uk canada goose outlet on Thursday.

His ruling came after GMR won a canada goose coats brief Canada Goose Coats On Sale reprieve on Monday when a court order suspended the government decision to cancel the contract, although the Maldives still pressed ahead with plans to take over canada goose store the airport.

A spokesman for the Maldives president canadian goose jacket said the government would call for international tenders in about 18 months to continue with the airport modernisation.

Shares in GMR Infrastructure were down as much as 4.2 percent following the ruling after earlier being in positive territory on canada goose the day. They later pared some of those losses.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive officer of the airport project, said it was too canada goose coats on sale soon to discuss the practicalities of a handover.

always been advocates of following the law. We are waiting to review the full judgment, which is currently being written up. It is too early to comment officially. We canada goose clearance will have a staff briefing tomorrow afternoon, he told Reuters.

GMR employs 1,800 people at the airport, 95 percent of whom are locals.

will take over. We will enrol all cheap canada goose uk those people from GMR who wish to join. Those who don can go home. By Friday midnight we will take over, Imad Masood, the canada goose uk outlet Maldives president media spokesman, told Reuters, adding that the uk canada canadagooseoutlet4online goose Maldives would pay compensation to GMR.

The two sides have not yet agreed on terms of compensation.

will go for international tenders maybe in one and half years from now. But they will be very transparent, he added.

The Maldives, south west of India, terminated an agreement with GMR last week, rattling its relations with its neighbour.

is the biggest Indian investment in Male and we are only insisting for adherence to the legal process. Nothing more, nothing Canada Goose Parka less, Syed Akbaruddhin, spokesman for India foreign ministry, said on Thursday.

The cancellation of the contract follows a year of political turmoil in the Canada Goose Jackets Maldives that saw the ousting of its Canada Goose Outlet former president and months of unrest.

The contract to upgrade and operate the airport and build a new terminal came after a global tender overseen Canada Goose online by the World Bank and signed under former president Mohamed Nasheed administration. (Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO and Kaustubh Kulkarni in MUMBAI; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Jonathan Thatcher and Mark Potter).