NEW DELHI: If creaky, user-unfriendly airports form an indelible first impression in the international traveller’s mind about a city, New Delhi will soon cease to be seen as a dysfunctional and chaotic city. When Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport begins operations on 14 July (11 days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formally ‘inaugurates’ it on July 3), the Capital will suddenly transform into an efficient, open and elegant city, inhabited by a thoughtful society. Or so GMR, the airport’s operator envisions.
Completed in a record 37 months, there’s no denying that T3 — designed by the US architectural firm HOK — is a landmark development. With 5.4 million sq ft of area, shielded by a 20-metre high roof, the structure is tagged as the world’s sixth-largest airport terminal, though it may be a small fry compared to the 1.5 million sq mtr of Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3 that opened in 2008.
New Delhi’s T3 is capable of handling 34 million passengers annually, comfortably above last year’s estimated 25.25 million passengers. The crux, of course, is how well the new terminal will address the needs of air travellers and make it a less harried experience.
To that end, the facilities are encouraging. To begin with, there is multi-level parking for 4,300 cars and airconditioned walkways to the Airport metro line connection building and the main terminal to keep passengers shielded from Delhi’s heat and dust. Eight prominently-marked entry gates ease entry into and exit from the combined areas for domestic and international arrivals and departures.
Inside the departure area, 168 counters are expected to translate into very short queues. The nightmare of baggage scan lines is sought to be dispelled by the terminal’s state-of-the-art, five-stage baggage scanning system that happens after check in. Capable of handling 12,800 pieces of luggage an hour, the terminal’s vast baggage handling back area also has an ‘explosives bin’—a blast-proof space for suspect baggage — though that claim wasn’t independently verified by ET.
Some 95 immigration counters (divided between international arrival and departures) and many more security check areas (with conveniently adjacent scanning areas for men and women) for international and domestic flights, will ease outgoing passengers faster into the vast carpetted concourses on two 1.2 km long ‘piers’. These stretch 650m in either direction with 97 moving walkways to facilitate movement from the central terminal area— leading to 78 departure gates with aerobridges.