T3 to remain India's largest airport for 8 years

The Terminal 3 (T3) of the Delhi airport, the largest in the country, which completed one year of operation last month, will continue to carry the largest tag for about eight years, as the operator does not see the need for expansion of the airport.

"We will not have to go for expansion for at least five to eight years, as the existing capacity will be able to match passenger growth," said a GMR spokesperson, who did not want to be identified.

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The Delhi airport is operated by Delhi International Airport Ltd, a joint venture company led by the GMR Group, along with state-owned Airports Authority of India, Germany's Fraport and Malaysian Airport Holdings.

Currently, the airport has a capacity of handling 60 million passengers annually. It can be raised to 100 million by building two more terminals in phases.

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T3, which alone can handle 34 million passengers a year, is the eighth-largest passenger terminal in the world in terms of size.

The Delhi airport shot into limelight after the inauguration of T3 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2010.

In 2007, the GMR-led consortium had bagged the contract for T3.

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The launch of T3, coupled with improved service after being taken over by a private operator, has made the Delhi airport the fourth best in the world in the category of annual passenger handling between 25 and 40 million.

With the addition of T3, the capacity of the Delhi airport has increased to 60 million from 12 million in 2007.

In the first year of operation, T3, which caters to international operations and domestic operations of Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines along with their low-cost subsidiaries, handled 20 million passengers.

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The Bangalore-based GMR Group had its share of problems in operating the Delhi airport, its second major project after the Hyderabad airport.

"Operating an airport is a complex business and we realised it only after some mistakes.

The duty-free shop at the Hyderabad airport was closed because of some problems with the company running it. Now, we are operating it ourselves," said a spokesperson of the company.

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The terminal was built in a record 37 months at a cost of Rs 12,700 crore (Rs 127 billion) - over Rs 3,700 crore (Rs 37 billion) than the approved cost.

The terminal has 48 boarding gates, 63 elevators and 78 aerobridges, which include three aerobridges that cater exclusively to the Airbus A380 planes.

It has 168 check-in and 90 immigration counters, with a special counter for business and first-class travelers.

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The past one year of operation has been a mixed bag for the airport operator, as various issues related to shifting offices, rental cost and the size of the terminal were complained about by the stakeholders.