Jul. 2 – New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3 is set to be a big hit among travelers with its capacity rivaling other world-class air hubs when it becomes fully operational on July 3.
The airport is the busiest in the region thus making the upgrade long overdue. The terminal was finished in 37 months at a cost of US$2.2 billion, which compares favorably with the 45 months it took to complete Beijing’s similar international terminal at Capital Airport. It is bigger than new terminals found in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore combined with an impressive 78 gates, 168 check-in counters, 97 automated walkways, 95 immigration counters, an open car park for 4,300 cars and 20,000 square meters of retail space.
The new terminal can also now handle 60 million passengers annually and 75 aircraft an hour. It was designed by London-based architects HOK International using sheets of glass etched with images of Indian dancers as one of the design elements of the structure. Retail spaces will feature a mix of both local and international brands.
The terminal indicates India’s renewed determination to improve its infrastructure. The country has been spending about 6.5 percent of its GDP on infrastructure development compared to 11 percent for China, but is now encouraging more foreign investment in this area.
Next in the line for an upgrade is the financial capital, Mumbai, which will get a new terminal by 2012. The total cost to develop all Indian airports by 2020 will likely amount to US$20 billion, according to a Center for Asia Pacific Aviation report.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis, principal of Dezan Shira & Associates comments, “The old image of India as broken down and inefficient is outmoded. Just as China went through massive infrastructure development with astounding results, so India is well on the same journey. The new airport terminal has a tremendous design and is astonishing in size.”
“Foreign investors in the second tier manufacturing industries and suppliers related to infrastructure development need to take India seriously as a destination with the huge number of development projects the country has. India is the land of tremendous potential and ability to finally complete on this, and the new Delhi T3 more than adequately demonstrates this,” he adds.
The new terminal is the eighth largest in the world. Its statistics include:
- Building: 600,000 cubic meters of concrete, equivalent to 240 Olympic size swimming pools, and 200,000 tons of reinforced steel
- Roof: 18,000 tons of structural steel
- Floor: 110,000 square meters of granite imported from Bahrain
- Windows: 95,000 square meters of glass wall curtain, equivalent to 13 football fields
- Curtains: 100,000 square meters imported from China
- Runway: material used sufficient to build a 70 kilometer long, eight-lane highway
Delhi’s new terminal has opened to local residents for initial sightseeing and is currently undergoing soft opening procedures to check facilities. People have also been involved in trial runs in the new airport, with 15,000 volunteers pretending to be passengers, and staff going through the terminal, testing every facility including the customs and immigration checks. The fully automated baggage handling system is said to be able to handle 12,800 bags in an hour, and this finally brings India into world-class status regarding its airport facilities.
Dezan Shira & Associates maintains five offices in India and assists foreign investors with corporate establishment, tax planning and accounting matters. Please e-mail india@dezshira.com for inquiries.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the principal and founding partner of Dezan Shira & Associates, establishing the firm’s China practice in 1992 and the India practice in 2007. The firm now has ten offices in China and five in India. For advice over China-India strategy, trade, investment, legal and tax matters please contact the firm at info@dezshira.com. The firm’s brochure may be downloaded here. Chris also contributes to Asia Briefing’s other titles, India Briefing, China Briefing and Vietnam Briefing.
Correction
An earlier version of this article reported that the new terminal would be the world’s third largest. It is the world’s eighth largest.
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“The old image of India as broken down and inefficient is outmoded.”
This is a premature declaration. There must be consistent results on top of this achievement. I often think your opinions are not well grounded.
Surely, this is not the end of India’s development. Hopefully, we’ll achieve many more of such accomplishments in the near to longterm future.
“The old image of India as broken down and inefficient is outmoded.”
@TE Above statement is valid in the sense, India at least for once was able to break the stereotype and achieved such an accomplishment in such a short period of time. There used be stereotyping of India as this broken state which cannot build anything substantial and on time. In that sense, the above statement is definitely outmoded.
Hopefully, this sets precedence to many more to come. Yet, India has a long way to go to completely break the stereotyping.
The changes I’ve seen in India over the past four years mirror those I saw in China in the late eighties. They also appear irreversable. The new Delhi T3 – the third largest globally – is a major achievement and we can expect plenty more from India. Suggesting its not true is sticking your head in the sand, and as for “not well grounded opinions” well you should see my air miles on Jet Airways between Beijing/Delhi & Shanghai/Mumbai…I can assure you I don’t fly those routes for the food. (although Jet actually is pretty good) – Thanks – Chris