The Hindu Business Line : New Mumbai airport — A tough project, with tremendous potential

How difficult it is to get land in Mumbai is something that the developers of the Chhatrapti Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) have learnt the hard way. However, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), which started work on the modernisation of one of the two busiest airports in the country in May last year, is confident of completing the modernisation process on time.

“Everything in Mumbai revolves around a four letter word — land. This is a seriously constrained airport and despite all the problems we are neither making excuses nor putting up defences and will finish on time. The legal and contractual obligations will be met, but the real test is what the people feel about us,” says the Group Vice-Chairman, Mr Sanjay Reddy.

While the available land in Mumbai is nowhere close to the amount available in Delhi, there is also the issue of encroachments. CSIA has 1,976 acres as against 5,107 acres available in Delhi, 4,000 acres with the Bangalore International Airport Ltd and 5,000 acres with the Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.

MIAL officials claim that while the Operation, Management and Development agreement — the mother agreement for the project — estimated that the total encroached land at the airport was 147 acres, the company discovered that actually 276 acres had been encroached.

Now MIAL is using the carrot and stick method to ensure that the encroached land is made available. Now in an effort to rehabilitate slum dwellers, MIAL has invited an Expression of Interest from developers which are currently being evaluated.

Not easy

Both Mr Reddy and the Chief Operating Officer, Mr Rudy Vercelli, accept that implementing the project has not been easy. “This is probably the most difficult infrastructure project in the world today,” Mr Vercelli says.

“We had no idea what we were getting into. But now we have got a good handle on the situation. Passengers may face some problems for some time, but as we say bear with five years of pain and enjoy the next 55 years without any,” Mr Reddy adds. The contract for the modernisation of CSIA initially runs for 30 years but is extendable for another 30 years.

If the project is such a nightmare, why did the company bid for it in the first place?

“We saw tremendous potential and the viability of the project is not an issue. We were not geared for Delhi. We had limited time and wanted to do justice so we bid only for this airport,” says Mr Reddy.

initiatives

So while dealing with the problems of land and encroachments, MIAL, a joint venture company with the participation of the GVK Group, South African Airports and Airports Authority of India is going ahead with a number of initiatives to ease the congestion at the airport.

These include making use of both runways during peak hours and enhancing parking positions by building new aprons and rationalising the usage of existing ones. The car park has been revamped and weather protection is being provided through canopies put up at terminal 1B. The retail outlets and food and beverages options available at the terminal too have been increased.

Similarly, at Terminal 2, work on building a bridge over the drain on the main access road has been completed. The use of side roads for exiting from Terminal 2C has been initiated and rain weather protection too is in place on the departure side.

An Airport Operations Control Centre that allows for computer-based allocation and management of aircraft parking positions and terminal facilities has also been commissioned.

Officials claim that this system has been so successful that other airport operators within the country are keen to install a similar facility.

The goal

At the moment, the MIAL team has one goal — to make Mumbai move up from its current position of being 55 among the top 60 airports globally, something that they feel would surely happen in the not to distant future. Hence, the other plans of the Group include building a new domestic terminal 1C, between the existing 1A and 1B terminals. It is at this new terminal that MIAL plans to build a hotel. While the new terminal is expected to be ready by December next year, the hotel will come up a little later.

Besides, to facilitate passengers, MIAL plans to hire about 60 Passenger Relations Officers from various training academies, said the Airport Director, Mr Philip Cash.

So the days of landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and being welcomed by a smartly turned out host who guides you through the airport or bidding farewell to friend or family member and then walking to the cineplex to watch the latest blockbuster, are perhaps not far away.

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