To be engine of economic growth for entire Telangana and the region

In the tenth year of its operation, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Hyderabad has drawn up ambitious plans to emerge as the hub airport for entire south and central India.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL), which developed the country’s first greenfield airport under the public-private partnership model, sees the RGIA as gateway airport to a vast region stretching into northern Karnataka, south eastern Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

“We have identified over 15 cities which we are targeting through our ‘Fly via Hyderabad’ campaign. Our vision for the next five to ten years is to become a big transit hub. Leveraging our natural locational advantage and excellent multi-modal connectivity, we are working to position Hyderabad as a hub airport for entire south and central India”, GHIAL Chief Executive Officer, SGK Kishore, told The Hindu.

In this regard, the GHIAL has planned the airport’s expansion to meet the anticipated traffic. “Expansion work, which is expected to start soon, will happen in phases with the first phase development increasing the airport’s capacity to around 20 million (passengers a year)”, Mr. Kishore said.

The GHIAL is also aiming at making the RGIA the next big logistics hub. “There is an opportunity to develop dry ports in the vicinity of Hyderabad airport to facilitate air-to-sea and sea-to-air cargo links and gain further advantage and help Hyderabad become a regional hub for cargo business”, he said.

Stating that the RGIA was well on its way to achieving its vision of becoming the logistics hub of India and South Asian region, Mr. Kishore pointed out that at present, the airport had the country’s first modular, integrated cargo facility, which also houses India’s first Pharma Zone that offers end-to-end, temperature-controlled environment right from the truck-dock to the airside.

The cargo complex also provides two animal quarantine stations, a plant quarantine station and on-site facility of the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation to facilitate approvals for pharmaceutical shipments.

Going ahead, GHIAL is planning to develop an entire ecosystem for perishable products. To do this, it envisages developing a network connecting cold storages with farms and warehouses.

"We would be developing a separate terminal for perishable cargo very soon. We also want to develop a Pack House for pre-processing of perishable cargo as per the accepted EU (European Union) and US norms which would serve the needs of local exporters and industry. We also want to develop a Food Park with cold storage facilities", Mr. Kishore said.

This apart, GHIAL is in the process of developing an International Express Cargo terminal facility as an added offering to the trade in Hyderabad. The airport wants to attract multinational cargo operators such as FedEx and DHL to operate out of Hyderabad and extend their service offerings in the local market.

The GHIAL is also developing Hyderabad Airport City as a theme-based, anchor-led development consisting of activity centres such as Business Port, Health Port, Edu Port, Fun Port, Logistics Park and Aerospace Park. It now houses a multi-product Special Economic Zone and the country’s first airport-based Free Trade Zone called GIFTZ (GMR International Free Trade Zone). These developments, Mr. Kishore said, were in tune with the GHIAL vision of ‘not only to contribute directly to the airport business but particularly to act as the engine of economic growth for the entire State of Telangana and the region’.

In this context, he pointed to a study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) on the the Economic Impact of Hyderabad Airport City’s development and subsequent operations. The study found that, during the construction phase, the airport ecosystem contributed ₹ 16,700 crore of income to the national GDP and generated 15,800 direct and indirect jobs.

“A similar level of contribution is expected as the airport expansion kicks off this year wherein we will be doubling the annual handling capacity,” Mr Kishore said adding that by 2025, operations of Airport City were expected to contribute around ₹ 69,000 crore to the national GDP and generate up to 1,98,000 jobs.

In the coming days, RGIA will be rolling out a pilot project to enable completely paperless travel, using the biometric identification of a passenger to replace both ticket as well as the boarding card. Already, the airport has eliminated hand baggage stamping and provided E-boarding facility.