Mumbai bets on airport revamp to boost global standing

(Mumbai, IND) - Mumbai will unveil its lavish and long-awaited new airport terminal Friday, part of a $2 billion revamp that aims to challenge India's reputation for shoddy infrastructure and boost the financial capital's status.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the terminal in the city's north, described by the head of the project as the "mother of all challenges" given the obstacles it faced, particularly tight land constraints.

With a design inspired by the peacock, the national bird, the new terminal for both international and domestic flights boasts India's largest public visual arts programme, largest car park, a new six-lane elevated road to ease traffic and 140 immigration counters.

"We wanted to create our own global benchmark," said G.V. Sanjay Reddy, managing director of Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd and vice-chairman of GVK Power and Infrastructure, the Indian company leading the airport's operations and revamp.

A vast improvement on its congested and uninspiring predecessor, the terminal has, however, been years in the making and illustrates some of the difficulties of executing megaprojects in India.

It had been due for completion in 2012, part of an airport overhaul that has risen in cost from 98.02 billion rupees ($1.58 billion) to 125 billion rupees.

Unable to shift tens of thousands of shanties on the airport land area, the developers only had about 1,400 acres (570 hectares) for use, leading them to create the X-shaped, "vertical" new terminal across four floors to make the best use of space.

Most slum-dwellers on the airport site, their tin-roofed homes a stark contrast to the grand new edifice, refused to move because the relocation conditions were "not clear", said Jockin Arputham, president of the National Slum Dwellers Federation.

"People want to know what the government is offering," he told AFP.

Disputes over the relocation of a politically charged statue of a 17th century warrior king also led to a 17-month delay, and -- perhaps the biggest challenge -- the terminal had to be built on the city's existing airport site while full flight operations continued.

"When we won the project it looked impossible by most people's views," Reddy told reporters this week over lunch by a baggage reclaim carousel, as giant wind-chimes tinkled above.

"Infrastructure projects in India are complex -- it's only a question of degree of complexity," he said.

Indian identity

The design has focused on Indian identity, from lotus flower chandeliers to the check-in floor's 272 sky-lights, with special lenses that move according to the sun to create reflections like peacock feathers on the floor.

While the terminal has capacity for 40 million passengers per year, there are serious concerns over the future strains on Mumbai's aviation growth given the lack of space in the densely populated city, where more than half of the inhabitants live in slums.

Kapil Kaul, South Asia head of consulting firm CAPA (the Centre for Aviation), described the terminal as "an iconic addition to the aviation landscape", but said the airport would become "air-locked" in a few years, reaching its maximum number of flights.

Another airport has been proposed in Navi Mumbai, a satellite city, but Kaul said the project's fate remained uncertain.

Improving India's notoriously creaking infrastructure, from its ramshackle roads and railways to its unreliable power supply, is seen as key to boosting the country's slowing growth.

India is due to become the world's third largest aviation market after the United States and China by 2020, handling 337 million domestic and 84 million international passengers, Civil Aviation Secretary K.N. Srivastava said last month.

But Mumbai's hemmed-in airport may fail to reap the benefits of the boom: two new airlines to set up shop in India, AirAsia India and a Tata-Singapore Airlines venture, have chosen to be based out of southern city of Chennai and the capital Delhi.

Reddy remains upbeat that the new terminal's facilities and its efficient use of space will win over passengers -- and "if passengers like it, airlines will follow".

He is especially proud of the "Jaya He" gallery, with a three-kilometre-long display spanning centuries of Indian art and quirky features such as walls plastered with cow dung and Bollywood murals.

"This airport is not really targeted towards foreign travellers, it's targeted towards Indians," said Reddy. "People have really forgotten what it means to be Indian."