Epaper
Hyderabad: Any major greenfield airport in the world has its own teething problems and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad is no exception. The GMR Group, which executed the airport project, seems to take solace in this “global problem”.
Under flak from the media and air passengers for the poor facilities at the new airport, the GMR has sought to underplay its ill-preparedness and ill-planning saying that “some of the recent airport operation transfers across the world have been fraught with numerous problems, which severely affected their functioning in their initial phase”.
The GMR has come up with the instances of the Hong Kong International Airport at Chep Lak Kok, Bangkokâs Suvarnabhumi Airport and Incheon Airport in Seoul. The company said for three to five months after the opening of the Hong Kong airport, it “suffered various organisational, mechanical and technical problems that almost crippled the airport. The old airport had to be temporarily reactivated”.
It claimed that the Bangkok airport was initially plagued with issues such as congestion, construction quality, signage, provision of facilities and soil subsidence and cracks on the runway and taxi way.
“To avoid any such issues, GMR-Hyderabad International Airport Limited undertook an exhaustive operational readiness and airport transfer programme. As a result the transfer of operations from Begumpet to RGIA was conducted very smoothly without any major inconvenience to passengers or disruption in air services,” it said.