Essel Infra ties-up with US firm for airports work

Expressing interest in the upcoming Navi Mumbai and Goa airports Subhash Chandra-led Essel Infraprojects has tied up with ADC&HAS Airports Worldwide, the US-based company that runs airports in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Korea.

It is a joint venture of Houston Airport System, Airport Development of Canada and Omers, a Canadian pension fund. The Essel group, with the TAV group, had unsuccessfully bid to run the privatised Mumbai airport in 2005.

Jorge Roberts, ADC&HAS Airports Worldwide's Director (project development) said India remained an attractive investment destination, despite the delays and regulatory problems.

The equity structure between them and Essel, he said, would be finalised after the issue of a formal Request for Proposal for the Navi Mumbai project. He said India was a stable democracy and his company had been operating in far more difficult markets such as Ecuador, which had seen successful and failed coup bids recently.