According to Rao, the funding of the project will have a debt:equity ratio of approximately 1:1.5 with around Rs 700 crore to be raised from banks and financial institutions. While IDFC and ICICI have been acting as lead financiers for the project, a consortium with a dozen banks and financial institutions, has already been formed to fund the project. The state government has agreed to arrange Rs 315 crore as interest-free loan beside giving Rs 107 crore subsidy as advance development fee.
While the Andhra Pradesh government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) hold 13 per cent equity each, the remaining 74 per cent equity is held by the GMR Group-led GMR-Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad consortium. Within the private consortium, the Malaysian company holds about 11 per cent stake. The first phase of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport project is designed to handle 5 million passengers. The project, which has many firsts to its credit, will feature the longest runway in the country with a length of 4.26 km and cat-1 lighting system on both ends. It will have 24 aircraft parking stands including 10 aero bridges. The project is being developed in an area of 5,500 acres.
