JOIN USIndian infrastructure giant GMR has described as ''illegitimate'' an order by the Maldives government to hand over the Male airport within seven days after its contract was annulled, and insisted the company will not leave the Indian Ocean archipelago nation.
On the cabinet's decision to annul the agreement, GMR head of communication Arun Baghad told Haveeru Online he refused to accept that the government can terminate the agreement after just two years into the 25-year contract. Despite the seven-day notice given by the government to hand over the airport, GMR would look to honour the agreement and stay in the Maldives till the end of the 25-year contract, Baghad said."We are going nowhere. A solution to the matter will be sought out," he was quoted as saying.Former president Mohamed Nasheed Wednesday said the government of President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik used xenophobia, nationalism and religious extremism to attack GMR and annul the agreement. Reacting to the government's decision to annul the agreement to manage the Ibrahim Nasir international airport, Nasheed told Haveeru online: "This decision is bad for tourism, bad for the economy and bad for the Maldivian people."