Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) is one of the busiest airports in South Asia and the second busiest in India. The airport handled almost 30 million passengers between April 2010 and March 2011.

CSIA connects 48 international passenger airlines, 7 domestic passenger airlines and currently operates more than 680 flights a day while directly linking Mumbai to 83 airports in India and worldwide.

For the modernisation, upgradation and expansion of CSIA, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) was awarded the mandate in May 2006. MIAL is a joint venture between the GVK-led consortium and Airports Authority of India.

Last year, GVK increased its stake in MIAL to 50.5 per cent. “This was a significant step forward for us in consolidating our presence in the airport sector and underscoring our commitment to the modernisation of CSIA,” Mr G.V. Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, MIAL, had said.

The airport has domestic terminals 1A, 1B and 1C and international terminal 2 BC. Among the latest expansion and upgradation plans is the construction of integrated terminal.

0The terminal integrating both domestic and international flight operations and a new network of taxiways are the major projects that MIAL has undertaken for capacity enhancement.

The integrated international terminal in Sahar, Andheri, that is expected to be completed by the second half of 2013, will enhance the capacity of CSIA by catering to about 40 million passengers annually.

The new terminal will have 184 check-in counters, 56 passenger boarding bridges, 14 reclaim belts, around 7 lakh sq ft of retail space and lounges and travel services and a car parking facility for over 5,000 cars. The new X-shaped terminal will have a total floor area of 4.3 million square metres across four floors. Currently, the airport has around 30 boarding bridges, 135 check-in counters and parking capacity for 3,600 vehicles.

Latest facilities

MIAL has been working on creating an upgraded airside infrastructure at the CSIA.

The reconstruction of the main runway was completed last year, which involved upgradation and resurfacing the main runway over a period of seven months.

The width of the main runway was increased from 45 meters to 60 meters to accommodate Airbus A-380 aircraft.

Earlier this year, MIAL initiated the construction of a new Rapid Exit Taxiway (RET) to enhance the runway efficiency of RWY 09/27 (the main runway).

The Rapid Exit Taxiway Lighting is being laid for this new taxiway.

The runway needs more RETs to minimise aircraft runway occupancy time and to accommodate more flights. The construction is a part of MIAL's plan to create a network of parallel taxiways and RETs along the two runways.

Routes Asia 2013

Mumbai will play the host city and CSIA the host airport for Routes Asia 2013. The forum will bring a number of visitors to Mumbai from the airline, airport and tourism industries to discuss and explore the opportunities for airline route development.

MIAL won the Routes Airport Marketing Award for 2012 in the Middle East and India category at the 10th Routes Asia Airport Marketing Awards ceremony held in Chengdu, China recently. The other participants shortlisted in this category were Abu Dhabi and Delhi International Airport Ltd.

Social media

MIAL entered the social media space in the second half of 2011.

CSIA earned the distinction of being the first and only airport in India to go live on social media with a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter handle. During this period MIAL also hosted a training session on security and commissioned additional security systems.

Carbon footprint

Recently, CSIA became the first Indian airport to be accredited the ISO 14064-1:2006 certification for its Carbon Emissions Accounting by Bureau Veritas, a global leader in carbon certification. Incidentally CSIA is also the second airport in Asia to receive this certification.

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