During the first concrete-pour event at Hyderabad's greenfield Shamshabad airport, which is scheduled to be completed by March 2008, Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad said: "Hyderabad is one of India's fastest growing cities. It requires increased connectivity"

The airport will have the capacity to handle seven million passengers per annum. "The civil aviation industry will be a major contributor to the country's GDP. It has to grow at 50- 60% per annum if we have we want to grow at 7-8% annum" Mr Prasad said,

Once the work is complete, the government is planning to shut the existing airport at Begumpet for scheduled commercial operations. Mr. Prasad said "the existing airport at Begumpet will not service scheduled flights after the completion of the new airport. The Air Force and civilians will use it for training purposes only, Some VIP flights may use the terminal there," The ministry is also open to upgradation of other airports in Andhra Pradesh. The new airport at 'v'ishakapatnarn will be operational by second half of 2006, he added. Commenting on the possibility of airspace over Hyderahad getting crowded due to the presence of many training institutes and an Air Force base, Mr. Prasad said, "such a problem will not arise. We have considered that in the planning phase itself."

Hvderabad International Airport-a joint venture between the GMR Group, Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad, government of Andhra Pradesh and Airports Authority of India-is promoting the Rs 1,663-crore project. The Rs 615-crore contract for the construction of the passenger terminal building and air traffic control tower has been awarded to China State Construction Engineering. The terminal building will have a floor area of 100,000 sq metres.

The Rs 495-crore airside and landside works contract has been awarded to L&T. The contract includes the construction of a 60- metre-wide runway that will have the capacity to handle new generation aircraft like the A380. Work on the first of two runways will commence later this week.

HIAL Managing Director Kiran Grandhi said "the total construction period for both contracts is 30 months, of which 27 months is for construction and three months is for airport operational trials and certification.' The runway will be completed by June 2007 and all other physical works by November-December 2007, he added. The work on the compound wall work has already been completed and site preparation work is 95% complete, HIAL project management head Bruce Benjamin said: "We have telescoped the handling capacity of the airport from 5 to 7 million passengers per annum. We will do this by increasing the number of check-in counters from 40 to 60 and by increasing the number of parking stands around the main terminal." "We have roped in domestic and international techno-commercial groups to undertake studies on road and rail connectivity with the city of Hyderabad," Mr Benjamin said. Works on upgrading road links to the airport via NH7 and Srisailam will be undertaken by N}{Al and the state government. Proposal for a dedicated rail link is now being finalised. The Hyderabad airport project is part of the Centre's efforts to redirect traffic away from busy airports such as Delhi and Mumbai.