| An exciting and promising first ever Greenfield airport in the country will be a reality at Shamshabad in Hyderabad by about March 2008 and international air travellers will have a fine time touching down at or taking off from this prestigious international air port, named after late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Efforts to establish a new international airport began in late 1990s and the developer was selected among the three bids which were short listed for executing the project.
- Being developed on 5,400 acres at
- Shamshabad under Public Private
- Partnership (PPP) with the Andhra
- Pradesh Government, Airports
- Authority of India (AAI) and GMR
MAHB consortium with an equity contribution in the ratio of 13:13:74, the project is estimated to cost about Rs1400 crore with world-class facilities.
The State Government has already signed the State Support, Land Lease and Shareholders Agreements with the Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL) and the Concession Agreement between I-HAL and Central Government in 2004 and the construction activity is going in full swing and start commercial operations as per schedule by March 2008.
To provide further impetus to economic activities in and around the international airport, the developers are planning to establish an airport special economic zone within the airport. They have requested the State
Government for permission to set up the SEZ on 250 acres within the airport premises to provide infrastructure facilities to various export-oriented industrial activities and IT Industry at a cost of about Rs 65 crore.
The salient features of the international airport are; it has a 105,300 sq m terminal having the capacity to handle 7 million passengers per annum which includes a 25,000 sq m technical ser vices zone situated below the arrival level and 1,300 sq m external circulation area at the departure level. The terminal building will have 10 contact and 20 remote stands for aircraft parking.
Other buildings including the Air Traffic Control (ATC), technical section, cargo (100,000 tonnes capacity), aircraft maintenance, airport maintenance, CFR station and utilities will have a combined area of 35,000 sq m.
In the first phase of the project, the number of contact stands will be increased to 12 by adding passenger boarding bridges to stands on the north side of the pier. A VIP terminal, facility for general aviation and a Low Cost Terminal (LCT) for 0.3 million passengers per annum will be built and this would be increased to 10 million passengers per annum with an additional area of 37,000 sq m.
The LCT capacity will also be increased to 0.5 million passengers per annum and additional maintenance facilities, catering and offices will be provided 40,000 sq.m of space.
In the second phase, Terminal One will be expanded to an area of 2.5 lakh sq m to cater to the growing demand. The LCT will also be expanded to its full capacity of 1.5 million passengers per annum and the total built-up area at the end of second phase will be around 4.7 lakh sq m.
In the third and final phase, an additional floor area of 4.3 lakh sq m will be constructed bringing the total built-up area to 9 lakh sq.m.
The ultimate master plan is to cater to 40 million passengers per annum. To achieve this, the present master plan allows freedom of expansion to both air- side and landside facilities within the airport site. Further acquisition of land to the north and south will allow expansion of a third and fourth runway sys tem.
The designs of the runway, taxiways, aprons, visual aids and lighting systems are in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and recommended practices. These facilities will also accommodate code F aircrafts including the A 380.
Some 75 percent of aircrafts will be parked at stands at the terminal connected by passenger boarding bridges and 90 percent of the passengers will use these gates.
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