NEW DELHI: India can boast of having the second largest airport terminal in the world when the third terminal building at the Indira Gandhi International airport here comes up in 2010.
The terminal building alone will come up on 20 acres of land, with the entire seven-storey structure providing a total space of about 5,20,000 square metres and having a capacity of handling 34 million passengers a year.
The Terminal-3 or T3 of IGI airport would be the second largest after the new terminal at the Beijing airport, constructed before the recent Olympics, which has a total floor area of 9,86,000 square meters.
Giving details of the mega project underway at the Delhi airport, CEO (Airport Development) of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) I Prabhakar Rao said: "Our focus is on three Ms -- men, material and machinery.
That is helping us giving shape to this major project." In an interview to PTI, he said several factories were functioning at the project site, producing materials ranging from concrete and steel pipes to air-conditioning ducts.
"Almost a thousand trucks bring in bulk materials like steel, stones and bricks every night to the site, without disturbing traffic anywhere on the near by national highway."
Maintaining that it was a "challenge" for DIAL to complete the mega project in the stipulated time of 37 months, Rao said major airports like Changi in Singapore took 76 months for completion, while Heathrow's T5 and Beijing's new terminal took 60 months.
IGI Airport's T3, which would be able to handle the largest aircraft Airbus A-380, is expected to be completed by March 2010, ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
About 24,000 workers belonging to 44 contractors are working day and night to build the integrated terminal which will cater to 34 million domestic and international passengers every year. Also, on the 24X7 job are about 100 foreign experts, who are racing against time to meet the deadline.
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