Terminal velocity

India is on a hitherto unseen airport expansion. But it just may not be enough

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

It’s not a garden in a terminal; it’s a terminal in a garden!” That is how Hari Marar, managing director & CEO of Bengaluru International Airport, refers to its recently launched Terminal 2. ‘Garden terminal’ is a departure from the steel-and-glass template for most global airports, with a nature theme filling up the terminal complex with six lakh plants and 10,000 sq.ft of green walls, and the use of sustainable materials like bamboo and locally-sourced granite in construction. Bengaluru T2 was among the nine buildings CNN listed as those that will “shape the world in 2023”.

In fact, it is already happening. A month ago, walking up this garden path, Foxconn chief Young Liu was so impressed that the contract manufacturer for Apple’s iPhone promptly agreed to build a manufacturing facility near the airport investing 08,000 crore. It will create 50,000 jobs.

“It was great to note the infrastructure readiness… and the availability of social infrastructure around the plot earmarked for the project,” Liu wrote later to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. “The efficiency of cargo handling at the airport does have a significant bearing on our operations and metrics, as we rely on air freight for our multiple products to a considerable extent.”

Bengaluru T2 is just one of the poster boys of India’s aviation boom, as the country taxies for take off into becoming the world’s biggest domestic aviation market, as Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia mentioned in an interview with THE WEEK a while ago. “Look at the growth potential,” he said. “You have just 14 crore flyers out of a population of 140 crore. Which other aviation market has the potential that India has? I am looking at 40 crore air travellers by 2027.”