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The new airport, with world-class facilities, can initially handle 12 million passengers and 100,000 tonnes of cargo annually.

Ashwini Phadnis

Lufthansa, you have been cleared to land in Hyderabad. The visibility and weather are good and there is not too much wind. Welcome to the new Hyderabad International Airport at Shamshabad.

This is probably the kind of message that the pilot of the German airline will receive from the Air Traffic Controller as the flight begins its final descent into the new Hyderabad airport on the night of March 15 next year, when it officially opens for commercial flights.

Official sources told Business Line that as per the current airline scheduling, Lufthansa will be the first airline to land and take off from the new greenfield airport. At the moment, according to existing airline schedules, Air India is expected to be the second airline to use the new airport.

While the opening of the airport is five months away, work is going on at a frantic pace to ensure that all activities come on line smoothly for the transfer of business from the existing airport to the one at Shamshabad. The cost of the first phase of the project that is to be commissioned in March is estimated at Rs 2,478 crore.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), which was formed to design, finance, build, operate and maintain the greenfield airport at Shamshabad, started trial operation programmes in early September this year. It has appointed the Airport Consulting wing of Munich Airport International for handling the Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer process, more commonly referred to as ORAT. As per the agreement that the promoters have signed with the Government the existing airport in Hyderabad will close down its operations when the new airport becomes operational.

For Munich Airport International, that was responsible for the shifting of business from the old Bangkok airport to the new Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand, as well as to the new airport in Kuala Lumpur, the new Terminal 3 in Singapore and the soon to be operational Terminal 5 in London Heathrow, the task at Hyderabad is nothing new.

“The primary task of the ORAT team is to ensure smooth and seamless start of airport operations that include trial operations, operational readiness and airport transfer. For this they are using Facilities, Information, Systems and Human Resources concept, more commonly referred to as FISH,” a senior GMR official said.

The objectives of ORAT include having a coordinated approach to prepare all airport stakeholders including the airport operators, airlines, ground handlers, cargo agents and various government agencies, such as Customs, Immigration and the Central Industrial Security Force for the shift of operations to the new airport.

Besides, it also has to ensure that there is streamlining of procedures, each and every person involved with the airport knowing their roles and responsibilities.

“At the moment we are moving people into the new airport so that they are familiar with the surroundings and can guide passengers when the airport opens. The trials would run till February 2008 and then move into the Airport Transport mode of logistics support along with some functions of Operational Readiness. The ORAT project is supported by other functions within the airport, such as Project Management, Terminal Operations and the IT department,” said a GMR official.

To carry out passenger trials at the new airport, the promoters are getting volunteers from, among others, the general public, GHIAL staff, colleges in the city and from the military.

When completed, the airport, that is a public-private partnership project between GMR Infrastructure, Malaysian Airports Holding, Berhad, Airports Authority of India and the Andhra Pradesh State government, will provide world-class facilities and infrastructure. Its single terminal will be equipped with common user terminal equipment, check-in desks and self check-in kiosks.

Initially being built to handle 12 million passengers annually and 100,000 metric tonnes of cargo, in the final stage the airport will be able to handle 40 million passengers and 1 million tonnes of cargo annually. The airport proposes that almost 75 per cent of the aircraft parked in the terminal have access to passenger boarding bridges. The promoters also plan to have a 308-room business hotel on the airport campus during the initial stage of construction.

In addition, plans are also afoot to have a city check-in facility at Begumpet and Secunderabad railway stations. Besides, an elevated expressway is planned to help passengers reach the city centre, the completion of which will allow passengers to reach the city centre within 30 minutes of leaving the airport.

Discussions are also being held with the state government to provide mono-rail and multi-modal transportation systems for travelling to and from the airport, officials said.

More Stories on : Infrastructure | Insight | Andhra Pradesh

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