Delhi’s airport gets a makeover

The boom in civil aviation in India that began in 2004 soon revealed that the evolution of aviation infrastructure in the country was totally out of sync with rapidly growing demand. This was particularly so at the two major international airports Delhi and Mumbai that together handled more traffic than the rest of the airports put together. Transiting through these airports especially for the international air traveller was a traumatic experience to say the least. Clearly something had to be done and fast.

Although the process of modernisation and restructuring of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at Delhi was conceptualised in 2004, it was only in 2006 that through a global competitive process the contract was awarded to a Public Private Partnership venture called Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). This company is a consortium consisting of GMR Group holding 50.1 per cent, Airports Authority of India 26 per cent, Fraport & Eraman Malaysia at 10 per cent each and IDF’s share being 3.9 per cent. The consortium is led by the GMR Group with Fraport AG as the airport operator, Eraman Malaysia as the retail advisors and IDF providing finance. Against much opposition from left parties supporting the government from the outside, on April 4, 2006, AAI entered into Operations, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) with the DIAL under which the initial term of the concession was 30 years extendable by another 30 years.

Work on the remodelling of the Delhi airport which is the second busiest airport in the country after the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai, has been going on at a hectic pace for the last three years or so. DIAL has been racing against time to complete Phase I which aims to have the new terminal ready by the Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in Delhi in 2010. With the completion of the new terminal, the annual passenger handling capacity will go up to 60 million. In case of further rise in demand, DIAL has plans to augment infrastructure progressively in Phases to enhance annual capacity to 100 million passengers by 2026.

As is usually the case, remodeling and extensive renovation of an existing airport especially a busy one such as IGIA Delhi did cause considerable inconvenience to the air traveller whose ranks continued to swell in this period further aggravating the problem. With few cosmetic changes to partially alleviate intolerable congestion, departing traffic was divided between two Terminals designated as 1A and 1B. Air India and Kingfisher have been departing from Terminal 1A, while all other domestic airlines have been using Terminal 1B. Both the terminals were still inadequate in terms of passenger handling capacity especially in the winter months when there is frequent large scale disruption of traffic due to fog. Besides, use of separate terminals by different airlines, was somewhat confusing to first-time travellers and others not totally au fait with the system. To alleviate the woes of the traveling public, DIAL has now developed on fast track a new integrated departure terminal for domestic flights designated as 1D. As claimed by GMR, this was not a part of the contractual agreement but the company still chose to invest Rs 500 crore in this exercise for the sake of the traveling public. Magnanimous indeed!

The new departure terminal designated as 1D was inaugurated by the Civil, Aviation Minister Praful Patel on February 26, 2009 though it would be some time before the facility is operational. With a capacity to handle 10 million passengers annually, compared with the existing facility at both the existing terminals combined, Terminal 1D is far more spacious, elegant, has more than twice the number of check-in counters and a stateof-the-art baggage handling system. Although the new facility will offer a profound qualitative change in the level of passenger comfort and quality of service, some of the bigger Airlines may not be too willing to shift their operations to 1D. The reason is simple. Terminal 1D is only a temporary arrangement and these Airlines will be required to finally shift to the integrated Terminal 3 which is expected to be functional by March 31, 2009. Some of the Airlines therefore are not looking forward to relocating for the second time in a span of less than a year and have to contend with the obvious disruption of schedule with possible impact on revenue associated with relocation. The low cost airlines however will be required to operate from Terminal 1D handling substantial portion of passenger traffic.