Unofficially, executives of Delhi International Airport Ltd would tell you that T3, the world's second largest integrated airport terminal at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, will leave you with a sense of 'shock and awe' when it opens on July 3.
In fact, it does precisely that on a sneak peak this writer managed on Tuesday.
Finishing touches are still being given to the terminal. Still, as it is sheer grandeur which expands in front of your eyes, a grandeur the kind of which this country may not have seen since beginning its march towards a market economy.
Even the new Hyderabad and Bangalore airports, large and swank in their own right, are dwarfed in front of DIAL's new baby.
Spread over four kilometres, it is a sprawling architectural marvel in gleaming glass.
The sun rays reflecting from the glass facade could be felt a good five kilometers away on the driveway to the airport. T3 seems like a lethal spaceship from the future with its wings spread, brooding over the fast-changing economics of the world's fastest-growing bazaar.
Move closer and one could see the frenzy with which T3 is being dolled up to dazzle.
With a multi-pronged driveway to Delhi's latest airport terminal -- by metro, bus and cab -- the first structure that will strike the eye is the six-storeyed parking space, with its tentacles embracing the colour-coded glass-and-steel structure.
Nearly a kilometre-long passenger terminal greets the guest to T3 with mirror-finished vitrified tiles in grey and beige, and walls, whatever little of it is there, in pristine white.
The terminal is all about space. With more than 80 per cent of the structure in clear glass, supported by metal frames, T3 is endless on both sides.
Readying to handle 34 million passengers a year, with 168 check-in counters, 49 immigration desks and 50 emmigration desks, all housed in a blend of tradition with modernity.
Vitrified tiles give way to exquisitely crafted Kashmiri carpets of two different designs on two floors for domestic and international piers, each about one-and-a-half km long.
They are interspersed with a whopping 92 traveloters (automatic walkways). The roof has been designed to allow natural light to enter the building.
The terminal leads to the staggering 78 aerobridges, said to be the highest in the world in a single site.
Modern in every bit of it, T3 returns to tradition with the touch of an artist, subtle and subdued. The central hall from where domestic and international passengers part ways dons a huge mural with mudras of Indian dance forms.
Stairways to the upper floors reveal walls designed with traditional art forms reflected in blue neons.
Overall, beige dominates T3, with yellow and red colour codes distinguishing the desi from the videshi. Black and white signages, departing from the usual green and white international norm, accentuate the terminal's action -- India means business.
T3 has been built using advanced technology in construction. Light-weight, mess-free materials that use minimum water, have, therefore seen it get over in record 37 months.
Any other project of comparative size would have taken six to seven years in India.
A large part of the interiors has been built with gypsum-based drywalls that reduce noise and are high on fire and earthquake resistance.
T3 now awaits merchants to deck up the retail spaces and passengers to board flights. Otherwise, complete with security cameras, grey-coloured ticketing counters, large LCD displays and CISF soldiers in their crisp uniforms, T3 is now undertaking dummy runs on baggage handling and immigration procedures.
One could see hundreds of trolleys full of old and tattered suitcases filled with old clothes and heavy material being manned towards rows of conveyor belts for the tossing and turning till they meet their standards.
Size matters, and T3 is endless. Beijing has done it, but India is not far behind.
At least, T3 shows India is ready to soar. When T3 starts operation, with even Airbus A380s boasting of record turnarounds at Indian terminals, the country would have seen it all. Well, almost all.
