Delhi Airport - Phase 3A For 100 mnpax

The GMR-led Delhi Airport is all set to expand with a fourth runway – the only airport in the country – a bigger T1 apron area and development of a dual elevated Eastern Cross Taxiway (ECT), reports NIDHI SHARMA

- Nidhi Sharma

Delhi Airport — the busiest in the country in terms of both passenger and cargo traffic – is not just expanding with more flights, better passenger services convenience and seamless connectivity, but becoming future-ready. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) made it clear that there is a deadline approaching fast for this: June 2022.

9,800 crore would be the capital expenditure for the Phase 3A expansion plan, said I Prabhakara Rao, Deputy Managing Director, GMR Group. “The airport expansion project cost is met through combination of three components –internal cash accruals, real estate monetisation and borrowings. This includes $350 million FCB, equivalent to Rs 2,425 crore, raised as part of expansion funding and internal cash accruals of 3,000 crore,” said Rao. It is not clear how the airport will recover the money which is being pumped in, as Rao declined to get into the details during a press conference in New Delhi.

The GMR Group has 54 per cent stake in DIAL. DIAL stated that L&T had been entrusted the entire engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work of Phase 3A. “The work (under Phase 3A) have begun on all the fronts,” it added.

The Phase 3A infrastructure expansion includes construction of the fourth runway, expansion of T1 apron area and development of dual elevated Eastern Cross Taxiway (ECT). Once this expansion project culminates, Delhi Airport would become the first airport in India to have four runways as well as dual ECT. Its passenger handling capacity will increase from around 75 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to 100 million by 2022.