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August 2010
New airport for Delhi
T3 places India on the global map
The sheer size, grandeur and modernity of T3, the world's second largest integrated airport terminal at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, awes and dazzles all arriving passengers, reports Kul Bhushan.
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Arrival lounge: The swanky interiors of the T3 are enough to over awe the visitors by their sheer size and grandeur |
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When will India catch up?' was the frequent comment from passengers arriving at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. This was three years ago when they stood in long queues for immigration control and baggage claim in bland halls with erratic air conditioning. If they arrived during the last 37 months, they also had to put up with scaffolding, construction materials, workmen and noise as the new airport was being built round the clock.
'An airport is often the first introduction to a country. A good airport will signal a new India, committed to joining the ranks of modern industrialised nations,' said India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, at the opening of the chic new Terminal Three (T3) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in July after seven days of religious ceremonies involving 300 priests.
Earlier, when passengers arrived from the western cities such as New York, Toronto and London, or from the east, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, they would get a culture shock on entering the Indian airports. But no longer, as India has caught up.
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'Ooooooh!' could be the first response when they now land at the state-of-the-art, fully integrated new terminal. The gigantic steel and glass T3 extends over 5.4 million square feet, has 78 gates or aero-bridges, 97 automatic walkways or Travelors and a five-level baggage screening system with a capacity to handle 12,800 bags per hour, 215,000 square feet of retail space and parking for 4,300 cars in a multi-level building connected to T3 with covered walkways.
T3 has nine parking slots for the world's biggest double-decker Airbus A380 plane, six more than London's Heathrow. Covering 20 acres, it is the largest public building, with a length of 1.2 km from end to end, constructed since India's independence in 1947. T3 was completed in 37 months, which compares favourably with the 45 months China took to build the terminal in Beijing before the 2008 Olympics. Costing $2.8 billion, it can handle 75 planes in an hour with the latest CAT-III runway landing system.
T3 is a showcase for India's public and private partnership as the construction company, GMR, and the Delhi International Airport Authority interacted with over 50 government and semi-government organizations, managing to complete the project in record time. T3 has the latest IT systems to meet passenger needs, makes good use of natural light and is designed to be energy efficient and environmentally friendly, with nearly one million plants and trees planted in 70 acres around the structure. Electricity will be provided by municipal waste.
T3 ranks among the top ten airports in the world. In addition to Delhi, new airports have been built for Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, among others.
Gliding along on the Travelors, the passengers enter the massive arrivals lounge. They may well be flabbergasted at its sheer size and the imposing sculptures of 'mudras' feminine hands fixed over golden discs. Under these 'mudras' are 95 immigration counters with smartly dressed officers in grey blazers and blue ties to process immigrants' passports. Depending on your passport type diplomat, Indian national, foreigner or overseas Indian you will be directed to the right counter. If the arriving overseas Indians have a PIO or an OCI Card, they can be cleared quickly at special PIO-OIC counters.
Once they move out from passport control to the baggage claim concourse, their bags are most likely to be picked up on one of the 14 conveyor belts. If a passenger has nothing to declare, he/she breezes through customs and enters the arrivals hall. A host of services are on hand here, from taxis, car rental, hotels, currency exchange, telephones, shopping, a food court and lots more.
By the end of this year, passengers will be able to ride the direct Delhi Metro Airport Express (DAME) link from this airport to the city centre. In less than a half-hour ride on this most modern and rapid transit system in the world, they will be in Rajiv Chowk (Connought Circus), where they can change for any other Metro station on the network. Passengers can get a cab to take the eight-lane highway with numerous flyovers to reach the city centre in less than half an hour.
The departure from Delhi airport will be no ordeal either. Gone are the chaotic scenes at the entrance gates to the departures lounge, the hassle of getting security checks for baggage, the long wait at check-in counters and immigration control. Once the baggage is checked in, it is screened for security and so there is no need to load it on the screening machine and then lug it to the check-in counter. No long wait for checking in either as T3 has 168 check-in counters, 95 immigration counters and the capacity to handle 34 million passengers per year. In case a passenger's flight is delayed or cancelled, a 100-bed hotel is right within this complex.
Security in Terminal 3 is thorough. Fifteen x-ray systems and around 3,000 security cameras have been installed with a master control room. Security also includes a baggage system containing a detector that can identify hidden explosives.
T3 became operational with the first Air India flight from New York. Another landmark was the first commercial flight of Emirates A 380 Airbus on 15 July. The double-decker Airbus from Dubai touched down with 512 passengers on board, marking the world's largest commercial aircraft's arrival at the world's latest terminal.
Instead of wondering when India will catch up, passengers arriving at T3 will marvel at the fact that India has arrived and how!
Photos by Nyay Bhushan top | |
