It is problems galore for the country?s first greenfield international airport at Shamshabad. Though provisionally approved to commence commercial operations from today, and formally launched by none other than the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on March 14, the civil aviation ministry at the eleventh hour turned down its own approval. The reason given is that some of the airlines have sought more time due to ?operational reasons?. However, the ministry did not elaborate what the phrase ?operational reasons? means. As of now there is no specific date given when commercial operations will begin.
After the ministry?s announcement, the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) on its part said the airport is ready for commercial operations, and added that the kick-off date would be informed soon. Analysts however point out that the postponement is more to do with the issue of road connectivity to the airport. Passengers having to pass through long stretches of city roads which are always clogged is a hurdle the airport authorities still need to cross. Further, the absence of a star hotel within the airport village is another reason that is cited as a negative, as of now. Another issues is that the Director General Civil Aviation had given only provisional clearance to the operations, having found a big drain (about 105 ft away from the runway) as a security problem. Additionally, the International Civil Aviation Organisation is also understood to have not given its final report on the subject.
According to industry sources, some of the airline companies are still negotiating with the airport management on various charges including aircraft handling etc. Passengers are protesting over paying user charges (more than what is the charge in Begumpet, the existing airport) as also the steep transportation costs.
Kiran Kumar Gandhi, managing director, GHIAL, however, insists that the airport is just 60 minutes away from the main city. Besides, he says there are ample facilities created like airport shuttle, radio taxi service, executive car rentals and public transportation from about 15 locations of the city. As per the agreement, 30 air-conditioned airport shuttles will run from four locations at a frequency of 30 minutes and the fare per passenger will be Rs 95, inclusive of taxes. The passengers can also avail of the radio taxi service which are GPS enabled.
For providing speedy connectivity to the new airport, the state government had proposed an elevated expressway named after former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Though the project was awarded a year ago, it is still under construction. As per the revised schedule, the 11.6 km long expressway is now scheduled to be completed by about March 2009. Hence, the problem of connectivity would persist until then.
It is not that the developers were unaware of these problems at the outset. Yet the go ahead was given for commercial operations to begin today. So what the postponement is for now, at the last moment, still remains a mystery.