Mumbai gets new airport terminal

MUMBAI: Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) on Friday inaugurated its new terminal which is expected to improve air travellers’ experience at one of India’s busiest and most congested airports.

Part of the Rs 12,500-crore airport modernisation project, the terminal spread across 4.4 million sq ft will be opened for operations on February 12. The terminal shall initially be open to international passengers. It will likely open to domestic flyers next year. The terminal, built at a cost of Rs 5,500 crore, is crucial for the airport which has been plagued by problems of congestion and slow operations.

The land-locked airport spreads over an area of 1,400 acres. In comparison, Delhi’s airport is spread over 5,000 acres. Mumbai’s Terminal 2 or T2 is four levels high and has 208 check-in counters, as well as 23 domestic and 30 international security pedestals.

It also has 60 emigration counters for departure as against 38 now and 72 immigration counters on arrivals as against 40 currently.

It has 52 boarding gates compared to just 20 now.Inaugurating Mumbai airport’s T2, prime minister Manmohan Singh said that 5 such private-public partnership airports in India are currently handling 57% of passenger traffic. He added that the government plans to add 50 more airports in the country in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.