Zurich Airport bids to build Bangalore Airport
The newly-privatised Unique Zurich Airport is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to export its know-how.
It is one of two remaining bidders to help build and operate a new airport in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
As part of a consortium, Unique Zurich Airport is leading the challenge to win the $300 million (SFR492 million) contract in Bangalore, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of Asia.
The city, with its four million inhabitants, has tens of thousands of information technology engineers providing software for Europe and America.
The booming computer metropolis is said to be in urgent need of infrastructure, in particular a modern airport.
Together with the German Siemens concern and the Indian construction company Larsen and Toubro, the Swiss have presented detailed plans for the project, with a final decision by the Indian authorities expected in March.
Bangalore is just one of 40 projects that Unique Zurich Airport is studying to build and run airports abroad.
“India is a country of the future and we want to be a part of that,” explains the airport’s director Josef Felder.
“It’s often under-estimated that a lot is happening in the world of civil aviation. It is one of the biggest growth branches worldwide. Countries with large populations like India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and others in South America need airport know-how and they’re waiting for what we can offer,” he adds.
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