Sonia Gandhi inaugurates India's first green field airport at Hyderabad

The UPA president Sonia Gandhi on Friday inaugurated India’s first green field airport named as Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad near Hyderabad amid great fanfare in the presence of Union Aviation Minister Praful Kumar Patel and Andhra Chief Minister Y S R Reddy; by burning lamps and unveiling the plaque and a painting of her late husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on which Shamshabad airport has been christened.

However, the operation of flight would not begin as per decided scheduled that was planned to begin from Sunday (March 16) morning at 01:00 am, as per Civil Aviation minister announced after completing the inauguration.

“The airport is fully ready, but it will now start operations within a maximum of 10 days,” said Praful Patel. The rumours began to storm among the public and corporate in which some said that airport was not completely ready to begin the flight operation as per earlier decided scheduled of the inauguration on March 28 while GMR, the manufacturer of the airport has requested to Sonia Gandhi to inaugurate it on March 14, on the day of stone foundation.

Sonia Gandhi on March 14, 2005 had laid the foundation to build the airport. That’s why GMR wanted to hold the inauguration ceremony on the same day of its foundation ceremony day.

‘This will indicate the rivals to show the capacity of GMR infrastructure’ as rumours extracted from the public and media, while Praful Patel denied all the rumours quoting as “Some airlines requested for time to shift to the new airport… I did not want complaints from passengers that some airline machinery is not working because of the shifting trouble.”

Addressing to media and public, Sonia Gandhi said, “The entry of private airliners has improved passenger traffic and air connectivity will fuel economic development in the backward regions. The airports are no more used only for passenger transportation but also for the cargo movement as well that will boost fuel fresh investments and employment generation too.”

Sonia Gandhi has also appreciated the other innovative areas of the airport that can fulfill and support larger social objectives include to promote the women’s self-help group and to permit the tribals to sell organic coffee that they cultivate. They will get the place in the form of outlets within the premises to display and sell the products produced by them.

Memorising her husband, Sonia Gandhi said, “I am sure Rajiv Gandhi would have been happy and proud over what has been accomplished here in a short time.”

This airport has been built on the public-private collaboration basis in which the allocation of GMR group was 63%, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad has 11% share, and the Andhra government and Airports Authority of India have the share portion of 13% each.

Its 105,300 sq. metre terminal has the capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum in the first phase while its ultimate capacity is nearby 40 million passengers per year and cargo capacity is estimated to one million tones a year. It has been established on 5,000 acres of land and has 4,260-metre-long runway that is the longest in South East Asia.

An ATC tower (the technical building), cargo terminal with a capacity of 1,00,000 Metric Tonnes, a MRO, a CFR station and other utilities with a combined area of about 35,000 sq m. are situated attached to the airport premise.

With world class facilities, Rajiv Gandhi Airport has been furbished with a world-class business centre, baggage with pick up & delivery facility, limousine service, gymnasium, shower facilities, massage services, foreign exchange facility offered by Travelex and Wiezmann Forex and the ATMs of several banks including Yes bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, Kotak Vijaya, Canara and ING Vysya banks.

A round the clock 17-bedded medical centre with attached facility of ultrasound/ECG and 24 hr emergency dental service included with permanent staff and paramedics are available on the behalf of Apollo Hospitals in case of any mishappening.

With the building of this airport, Hyderabad is expected to an international hub city on par with Dubai and Singapore and will a cargo hub of Southeast Asia that will take Indian airports to a new era. Now, India has a truly world-class airport contesting other airports of the globe like Oslo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The Shamshabad airport has been counted a worth of Rs.25-billion.

The opposition party in the state Telugu Desam party (TDP) and Bhartiya Janta Party were raised serious objection over being inauguration of Rajiv Gandhi Airport by congress president Sonia Gandhi, because Hyderabad has already an excellent international airport situated in the mid of the city, while Shamshabad has been set up 30-km far from the city, that may create the problem to the commuters and if become to run successfully then would be the culprit of pulling the revenue from Hyderabad old airport that may create the starvation problem for the airport employees, as of some worrying factor for opposition.