* Tender was cancelled in 2011 during debt crisis

* Airport, road links to cost 1.5 bln euros

* Infrastructure minister says has received strong interest

ATHENS, May 15 (Reuters) - Greece said on Thursday it had relaunched a tender for the construction of a 1.5 billion euro ($2.6 billion) airport and its link roads on the island of Crete, reviving a project shelved in 2011 because of the Greek debt crisis.

Amid signs the Greek economy will return to growth this year after a six-year recession, Crete's Kasteli airport is the second major infrastructure project that Greece is tendering in the last two years.

In 2012, Greece launched a tender for the development of a prime seaside property at the former Athens airport Hellenikon as part of its privatisation scheme. It named a China-backed group as the winner in March. ID:nL5N0MS45G

Greece tendered the Kasteli airport for the first time in 2009 and cancelled the tender in 2011, in the middle of its debt crisis, after it failed to pull in investors.

But Greek assets have became attractive again after Greece ended a four-year exile from debt markets last month.

The Ministry of Infrastructure said in an emailed statement that the winner would build a new airport and the necessary road links by 2019 and run the project for 35 years.

On a visit to Crete last week, Infrastructure Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis said there had been strong interest from more than 10 investors and that he was sure the new tender would be successful.

Some of the construction firms which had expressed interest for Kasteli in the past were France's Vinci SGEF.PA , Europe's biggest builder, and Bouygues BOUY.PA along with Greece's Ellaktor HELr.AT and J&P Avax AVAr.AT .

Kasteli will replace Crete's outdated Heraklion airport, Greece's second-biggest airport after Athens, handling nearly 6 million tourists a year.

Investors will have to submit their offers on Nov. 11, a source from the ministry told Reuters, declining to be identified. ($1 = 0.7294 Euros)

(Reporting Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

((angeliki.koutantou@thomsonreuters.com)(+30 210 3376436)(Reuters Messaging: angeliki.koutantou.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: GREECE AIRPORT/TENDER