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The Terminal
No. I am not referring to Steven Spielberg's Hollywood blockbuster. I am referring to a public infrastructure piece of work in India. Today, Delhi's International Airport opened its brand new terminal - "T3". The first AI plane landed from New York, although full operations will start by end of the month. This is a giant leap forward for the Aviation Industry in India. Apart from Delhikars and international travellers, we all have something there to be happy about.
About T3 First
Many will be surprised (at least I was) to know that this is the 6th largest Terminal in the world. It has a capacity to handle around 35 million passengers annually. Compare this with 23 million capacity of the entire Mumbai airport, the busiest in the country, until a day go. Together with T1 and T2 terminals, this will take the Delhi airport capacity to 50+ million annually. The state-of-the-art terminal is contemporary in its design, has all the amenities and facilities of a modern day airport including ample parking, passenger recreation, shopping, children play areas, food courts, Internet kiosks and so on. It has been built through the joint venture between GMR Group, Airports Authority of India and some foreign partnership from Malaysia with an investment of 3 Billion USD.
Significance for us
One would argue that how many Indians would even see this new swanky piece of infrastructure with their own eyes and hence why should they care? Well, there are enough reasons to care about.
- Being the 6th largest terminal in world, it certainly puts Indian aviation on the global aviation map.
- It is likely to attract many more international careers to India and setup their hubs in Delhi, resulting into further investment and employment opportunities.
- It is a giant leap for the Indian Aviation industry. After Hyderabad and Bangalore airports, India walks further on upgrading its aviation infrastructure which desperately needs an overhaul.
- Last but not the least. This giant piece of art was completed in record time of 3 yrs. Cutting through the usual red tapes and govt machinery, a public infrastructure project of this size has been executed bang on time and almost within projected budget. This defies all the popular (?) believes that Infra projects, especially those under the Govt fold, take ages to see the light of the day. Delhi once again (after Delhi Metro) has demonstrated excellence. Kudos. This should add to our confidence in our public servants to deliver on their duties. Although, this might be the result of GMR's involvement, it does not make it a lesser exception in the infra projects in India.
I hope Mumbai learns some lessons from this and finally gets through the Govt red tape that is sitting on approving the International Airport at Panvel.
I am happy, proud and hopeful.
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