Author Topic: Delhi airport: The future has landed (Read 685 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲ · « **on:** July 17, 2011, 01:11:21 PM »

Not long ago, a foreign traveller waiting for his luggage at Hyderabad's new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport told a fellow passenger: "I have been travelling to India since the '80s. Why can't the people at the Delhi airport learn a lesson or two from the folks at Hyderabad?" The Indian co-passenger replied: "Come to Delhi in July sir, you will see an airport that will be among the best in the world." The co-passenger was I.

Terminal 3 will cater to domestic as well as international passengersPrabhakara Rao, CEO, Airport Development, at GMR, the company that built the Hyderabad airport, now voted the best among the world's airports handling 5-15 million passengers, and is in the process of completing the swanky new Delhi airport. On July 3, the new Terminal 3 (T3) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport will be unveiled and those who have routinely termed the airport as among the worst in the world will be happy to visit again.
There couldn't be a greater contrast between the old and the new. At 5,02,000 sq m, T3 will be the eighth largest terminal in the world after Dubai International's T3, which is 15,00,000 sq m, Beijing Capital International Airport (9,86,000 sq m), Madrid Bajaras Airport and others. It was completed in a record time of 37 months from the date of the concept being approved by the government - an impressive record considering that Singapore's Changi Airport's T3 took 76 months for completion and Heathrow's new Terminal 5 took 60 months.

Delhi airport was a national priority project, not a GMR project. That is what we kept in mind.
- Prabhakara Rao CEO, Airport Development, GMR[/t]Designed by Mott MacDonald and HOK architects and consultants of the UK, the building used up over 6,00,000 cubic m of concrete, equivalent to 240 Olympic-size swimming pools, and 1.1 million cubic m of earthwork; the embankment filling used for the runway is sufficient to build a 70-km, eight-lane highway. More than 1,00,000 tonnes of rebar - reinforcing steel was used-nearly four times the amount that went into the construction of the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata. And 95,000 sq m of glass wall curtains on the terminal building equal the size of 13 football fields.
If that isn't jaw dropping, consider this: T3 will have more than 75 aerobridges (nine of which will be compatible with the Airbus A380), 20 remote parking bays for passenger embarkation and disembarkation. When it starts operations next month, the terminal will be able to handle 34 million passengers every year, which will take the total airport capacity to 60 million.
As an integrated terminal, T3 will cater to domestic as well as international passengers. All passengers flying regular airlines are expected to use T3 while the old Terminal 1D will cater to passengers flying low-cost airlines such as Spicejet, Indigo and Go Air. There are 168 check-in counters, 97 walkways and 14 baggage reclaim belts, all of which will help reduce waiting time. The baggage handling system is run by Siemens, which operates the same at the new Beijing Airport, where 12,500 bags are scanned every hour.[/font]

Author Topic: Delhi airport: The future has landed (Read 685 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲

Delhi airport: The future has landed

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