GMR, which is leading a joint venture to modernise the Delhi airport, on Tuesday said it would construct a fourth runway at the Delhi international airport to cater to a projected 37 million passengers.
Initially, the GMR led consortium had planned to add a runway to the two already existing at the IGI Airport.
"We will add a fourth runway to the Delhi International Airport after 2020 depending on the passenger traffic," Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) managing director Srinivas Bommidala said, hours after the Supreme Court upheld the award of airport modernisation contracts to GMR and GVK Groups in Delhi and Mumbai.
Bommidala said the Delhi airport had already started contributing 30 per cent to the overall revenue of the Group.
DIAL started the modernisation project from May. The first phase of the project is expected to be ready by March 2010.
Bommidala said the proposed third terminal at the Delhi International Airport will incur an expenditure of Rs 375-400 crore (Rs 3.75-4 billion) and will completed by March 2008.
The third terminal, 1-C will function in place of terminal 1-B, which will be closed after the new terminal is completed. Terminal 1-B caters to the departures of most of the private carriers. "Once the whole airport modernisation is complete by March 2010, terminal 1-C will be converted into a low cost terminal," he said.
Bommidala said the new terminal will not increase the cost of the entire airport project pegged at Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion).
He said the group was also looking at opportunities to bid for other non-metro airports which were coming up. "We are trying to look for airports at metros and mini-metros across India," he added.
Bommidala said the bidding will not necessarily be done by the same consortium and it will depend on the kind of the project they would bid for.
The Union civil aviation ministry had a few days back asked the consortium to ensure that the infrastructure is able to cater to 35 million passengers by 2010. The GMR led consortium had projected the passenger traffic growth at 28 million people by 2010.
Talking about the design aspects of the low cost terminal, Bommidala said the terminal will not have any aero-bridges.
"Although the terminal will be like any other domestic airport, the look and feel would be very different," he said.
DIAL is a joint venture company comprising Bangalore-based GMR Group, Airports Authority of India, Fraport, Malaysian Airport and India Development Fund.
DIAL has been given the mandate to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the Delhi Airport for 30 years with an option to extend it to another 30 years.
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