Travelers arriving at Mumbai’s international airport can soon expect to be rid of the long immigration lines, chaotic baggage claim experience, and hopefully, the stench.
On Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated a new terminal at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, which will be operational starting February 12.
The new T2 international terminal will be able to accommodate 40 million passengers per year — nearly a third more than the old terminal, according to a spokesman for GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd., which has been operating the Mumbai airport in partnership with the Airport Authority of India since 2006. The new terminal cost around 55 billion rupees ($890 million) to build, the spokesman added.
The last time a new airport terminal created such a buzz in India was when the T3 terminal was launched at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, with its automatic walkways, aerobridges and a sports bar. The terminal boasted an Indian look partly thanks to its installation of a series of giant hands showing “mudras” or hand gestures that are typical of classical Indian dance forms.
Photo courtesy GVK
The art wall at the new airport terminal, Mumbai.
The new Mumbai terminal may well outdo that, with a 1.9 mile art wall displaying around 7,000 works of contemporary Indian art and lotus-shaped chandeliers at the boarding gates.
The terminal’s design draws inspiration from the peacock, India’s national bird.
via Softer Landings at Mumbai’s New Airport Terminal – India Real Time – WSJ.
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