Surbana to provide advice on Maldives airport expansion project

MALDIVES Airports Company Limited (MACL) on Thursday said it has appointed Surbana International Consultants to provide project management consultancy services for the expansion of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) in Maldives.

The expansion works include a new international passenger terminal building, a new cargo terminal and a new fuel hydrant system.

Surbana will also be providing design and engineering review and project management consultancy services for the expansion works, said MACL.

The expansion project is targeted for completion within 30 months.

It will increase the airport's capacity to seven million international passengers and 1.5 million domestic passengers.

The new runway and taxiways will also improve aircraft movements and handling on the ground, as well as upgrade passenger experience to international standards, said MACL.

Currently, INIA handles some 2.3 million passengers a year and the traffic is expected to increase sharply within the next few years.

The airport has the world's biggest seaplane operation with 450 movements daily and is seeing increasing frequencies annually. It is also the gateway for all international passengers travelling to the exotic resorts in the country.