Delhi airport to undergo makeover after 10 years

Delhi airport is to undergo another makeover almost 10 years after GMR won the bid to modernise the airport in 2006. The makeover, which is being driven by four basic principles including growth of low cost airlines which now fly more than half of the market and growth in the amount of cargo carried in the belly of a passenger aircraft is part of GMR’s Master Plan 2016. The plan will be implemented in three modular phases --- Phase 3 A which will extend from 2018 to 2021, Phase 3 B till 2025 and Phase 4 from 2026.

``We are planning for the next 10-15 years. Physical work will begin early next year,” I Prabhakara Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), said on Tuesday. He, however, declined to reveal how much money will be spent on the makeover or whether passengers will be asked to pay a fee for the changes that are being planned.

`` Once we go to the Regulator (Airport Economic Regulatory Authority) we will come back (on this). We are not getting into User Development Fee because cost has not yet been finalised,” Rao said. In the past Delhi airport charged a fee from passengers arriving and departing from the airport to partially offset some of the costs incurred by DIAL for the modernisation work at the airport.

As part of the makeover Terminal 1D and Terminal 1 C will be expanded and merged into a single terminal and expanded to accommodate 40 million passengers a year. ``Today Terminal 1 does not have a single aerobridge,” Rao said adding that the proposed plan will see Terminal 1 having an area of 1.7 million square metres up from 60,000 square metres at present. In addition, it is proposed to have 35 Common Use Self Service (CUSS) kiosks, up from 12 currently.

CUSS allows a passenger with check-in baggage to go for automatic check-in without having to wait at a counter, thus cutting down the time taken at the airport. CUSS provides an even quicker option of checking-in passengers without any check-in baggage as CUSS kiosks can print boarding passes, allow choice of seat and also print tags for bags.

Till such time as Terminal 1 D and Terminal 1 C are completed Terminal 2, which was built in 1983 and was operational till 2010, will be used for low cost operation. But once Terminal 1 D and IC are completed Terminal 2 will be demolished to make way for Terminal 4. Plans are also afoot to have a fourth runway by 2021 apart from having an elevated eastern cross taxiway which will enhance airside capacity by allowing aircraft to reach their parking stands faster.

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