Find out which Indian airports are named after leaders, personalities

Bangalore has decided to name its international airport after Kempe Gowda, the founder of the city. Kempe Gowda is believed to have founded Bangalore about 500 years back. Folklore has it that it was known as 'Benda kaaluru' (baked bean town) and over the years it became 'Bengaluru' as it is even now called in Kannada, the language of the state, according to media reports.

The airport began operating five years ago.

Let’s take a look at some of the airports named after politicians, personalities and leaders in India.

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Bangalore International Airport

City: Bangalore

Named after: Kempe Gowda, who is believed to have founded the city about 500 years back.

The airport, which began operations on May 24, 2008, is 40km from the Central Business District and is spread over 4,000 acres. The runway is 4km long and 60 metres wide with three rapid exits. These enable an aircraft to exit the runway immediately after it lands, thus allowing for optimum utilisation of the runway.

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Indira Gandhi International Airport

City: New Delhi

Named after: Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India.

It has three terminals:

Terminal 1D - Domestic departures for Indigo, Go Air, Spice Jet.

Terminal 1C - Domestic arrivals for Indigo, Go Air, Spice Jet.

Terminal 3 - All international flights operate from Terminal 3. The Upper Level of Terminal 3 caters to Departures while the Lower Level of Terminal 3 is reserved for Arrivals. Domestic flights operating from Termina3 are: Air India, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Jet Lite, Jet Konnect, Fly Kingfisher, Kingfisher Red.

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Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport

City: Mumbai

Named after: Chatrapati Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire

The year 2006 witnessed a momentous change for the airports in India with the privatisation of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. It handled 29.1 million passengers and around 670,235 tonne of cargo in the FY 2010-2011.

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Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport

City: Kolkata

Named after: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the most prominent Indian nationalist leaders, and it is he who revived The Indian National army in 1943 .

The airport, which is located at Dum Dum, 18km from the city, has been ranked number one among international airports in customer service.

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Rajiv Gandhi International Airport

City: Hyderabad

Named after: Rajiv Gandhi, former prime minister of India.

The airport has one integrated Terminal for domestic and international arrivals and departures and one Special Handling Haj Terminal. It has 13 Business-Class Lounges and three VIP lounges.

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Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport

City: Ahmedabad

Named after: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, former deputy prime minister of India.

The airport, which is located 8km from Ahmedabad railway station, has two gates, one for international passengers and one for domestic ones. Of the total traffic, 75 per cent is domestic and 25 per cent international.

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Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport

City: Amritsar

Named after: Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee, the fourth Sikh Guru and founder of Amritsar.

The airport, which is located 11km from Amritsar railway station, handles 100 flights a week, both international and domestic.

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Raja Bhoj Airport

City: Bhopal

Named after: Raja Bhoj, ruler of Malwa Kingdom in central India.

The airport, which is located 15km from Bhopal city centre, caters to domestic travellers.

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Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport

City: Patna

Named after: Jayaprakash Narayan, activist and political leader.

The airport, which is located 0.5km from Patna railway station, is the 20th busiest airport in India and is witnessing rapid growth.

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Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport

City: Lucknow

Named after: Chaudhary Charan Singh, former prime minister of India.

The airport, which is located 10km from main railway station, operates two terminals, one for domestic and the other for international passengers.

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Biju Patnaik Airport

City: Bhubaneswar

Named after: Biju Patnaik, former chief minister of Orissa.

The airport, which is located 3km from city centre, saw inauguration of a new domestic terminal with a capacity of 800 passengers per hour (four million annually).

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Swami Vivekananda Airport

City: Raipur

Named after: Swami Vivekananda, founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

The airport, which is located 14km from Raipur, is served by Air India, Jet Airways, Jetlite and IndiGo, Air Odisha and Chhattisgarh Air Link.

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Birsa Munda Airport

City: Ranchi

Named after: Birsa Munda, former tribal freedom fighter and a folk hero.

The airport, which is located 7km from the city, used to be a small airport, but witnessed unprecedented growth in the past three years and now serves several budget airlines.

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Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport

City: Guwahati

Named after: Gopinath Bordoloi, first chief minister of Assam.

The airport is the main hub for passengers travelling to north-east and serves both domestic and international passengers.

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Veer Savarkar International Airport

City: Port Blair

Named after: Veer Savarkar, a pro-independence activist and politician.

The airport, which is located 2km from the city, has a single runway, accommodating most narrow-body planes.