Greece launches $2.6b Crete airport concession
This article is part of a daily series of MegaProjects articles. If you want to know more about PPP projects with a considerable size visit our MegaProjects section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.The Government of Greece has relaunched the tender process to develop a new airport and its link roads on the island of Crete.
Greece tendered the Kasteli airport for the first time in 2009. The tender process was cancelled in 2011 due to the Greek debt crisis.
The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operation and maintenance (DBFOM) basis for a period of 35 years. The preferred bidder will build a new airport and the necessary road links by 2019.
The deadline for submission of qualification documents is 11 November 2014.
The roads will have a length of 24 Km: 18 Km of motorway and 6 Km of one lane in each direction.
The project investment is estimated at US$2.6 billion. The contribution of the government may reach up to €220 million while the remaining funding would come from the winning bidder.
According to Infrastructure Minister, Michalis Chrysohoidis, more than 10 investors had shown interest in the project. International firms such as Vinci and Bouygues and local firms such as Ellaktor and J&P Avax showed interest in the project.
The new airport is scheduled to replace the existing "Nikos Kazantzakis" Airport at Heraklion, which is the second-biggest airport after Athens airport, handling nearly six million tourists a year.
The new airport will be situated on the south western side of the Hellenic Air Force Base of Kastelli. It will be constructed over an area of 600 hectares (1482 acres) and tt will feature a runway length of 3.2 km.
See tender notice:
http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:168340-2014:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0&tabId=0
