AIRPORT REPORT: MUMBAI
Passage to India
Oliver Clark talks to GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited chairman, Sanjay Reddy, about his company’ s plans to modernise its airports in India and further afield.
Standing on the waterfront in central Mumbai is the Gateway to India; a huge stone archway built in Victorian times to celebrate the arrival of what has become an enduring image of the city and an attraction visited by millions every year.
So, it is perhaps fitting that later this year, Mumbai’ s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport( CSIA) will unveil its own gateway to India which it hopes will be equally iconic – the revamped Terminal 2. Dubbed‘ T2’, the refurbished facility will consist of four integrated levels covering more than 439,000sqm, with new taxiways and aprons, 21,000sqm of retail space and give the airport the capacity to cater to 40 million passengers annually.
Offering what has been billed as unrivalled levels of customer service and state-of-the-art facilities, T2 will handle the airport’ s international operations and will be the first thing millions of international tourists experience as they arrive in India for the first time.
A huge exhibition area will showcase Indian art through the centuries with touch screens for visitors to explain each piece and learn about its history and origin.
It is also the culmination of years of work by operating company GVK to modernise and expand CSIA’ s facilities to ensure it can handle the ever-growing passenger numbers registered by the gateway, while also positioning it to become a leading international hub.
“ I think the opening of Terminal 2 represents one of the most important milestones in the history not only of CSIA but also of Mumbai,” says Sanjay Reddy, chairman of GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited.
20 AIRPORT WORLD / JUNE-JULY 2013