As you drive along the boulevard and pass by the 10 MW solar park, you feel the impressive presence of the Hyderabad international airport. Soon, the attraction will be as much the airport as the facilities coming up around it.
A city builds an airport, conversely, an airport can build a city around it, becoming, in the process, an aerotropolis — where the infrastructure and economy are centred around it. As the Hyderabad international airport enters its teens, its developers, the GMR Group, are looking to achieve just that.
On runway to growth
The Hyderabad airport, by leveraging its location, seeks to be the gateway to South-Central India. Today, it connects 60 destinations across India and abroad and is currently served by nine domestic, 17 foreign and three Indian international carriers. It has attracted many projects, including those of the Tata group, CFM, UTC, Amazon fulfilment centre, GMR MRO, Safran and FSTC.
It will soon feature business/health/education/entertainment ports, it will have logistics and aerospace parks. The proposed business port will see the development of the country’s largest exhibition-cum-convention centre, IT parks and office and retail space.
GM Rao, Chairman of the diversified GMR Group, launching celebrations in March this year to mark 10 years since the launch of the airport, had said then: “We have revised the entire master plan, upgraded the plan and capacity and plan to take it up to about 40 million passengers per annum (MPPA). With two runways, this can go up to 50 MPPA. There is potential to add two more runways and then expand the airport to take it up to 100 MPPA.”
Currently, the airport handles over 18 MPPA and GMR expects the growth momentum to continue.
Connectivity at every turn
Highlighting the development plans to BusinessLine , SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, says, “The current expansion will see creation of additional capacity across terminal, airside and landside facilities at the airport and will result in more than doubling the capacity in phases.”
The Hyderabad airport city is in the process of launching a business park of 1 million sq ft spread over 30 acres. While several elements of the airport city are already functional, across the Business and Logistics Port, which involve investments by GMR and third parties, tenants and investors, the airport will continue to be developed through a mix of self-development and direct third-party investment as well as built-to-suit developments for specific clients.
The airport aims to be the Logistics Hub of India and South Asia. It is connected on two sides with the National Highways and state Highway and the city through the Outer Ring Road and the PVNR Expressway. There is also a provision in the Master Plan to bring rail connectivity as well as rail siding for movement of goods. This makes it ideal to serve as a Dry Port as well. “The State Government move to extend the Metro Rail connectivity to Hyderabad airport will bring a lot of benefits to our passengers and to other airport users. We are in touch with the Government and metro rail authorities and have assured all possible support from our end for the project,” asserts Kishore.
The airport’s contribution to the economy has been estimated to be more than ₹7,500 crore and it is believed to have created more than 8,50,000 jobs over the years, according to GM Rao, citing the National Council for Applied Economic Research.
As the infrastructure and the economy around the airport grow, benefiting local and global users, it is only a matter of time before the Hyderabad international airport becomes, veritably, an ‘aerotropolis’.