Hyderabad Airport to get bigger to accommodate more traffic

Hyderabad: GMR group, which manages Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here, is likely to start the terminal expansion work next fiscal to accommodate 20 million passengers per annum against 12 millions at present, a top official said on Friday.

S G K Kishore, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), said it will have a capacity to handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo by the end of the current fiscal as against 80,000 tonnes last year. We may start the expansion work during next year which will have 20 million passengers per annum, Kishore told reporters on the sidelines of a CII programme.

RGIA was inaugurated on March 14, 2008, with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 150,000 tonnes of cargo handling capacity per annum. The Project has the flexibility to increase capacity to accommodate over 40 MPPA and shall be developed in a phased manner.

A GHIAL spokesperson said the company is expecting to touch 12 million traffic by the end of the current financial year and the traffic to be closer to 20 million in the next five-year period. This makes it imperative to start planning for expansion of the terminal from its current capacity of 12 million to keep pace with the likely growth.

The expansion is currently at the preliminary stage of planning and the proposal will be taken up after all approvals, including the regulatory approvals are in place, the spokesperson said. The amount of capex for the proposed expansion project will be arrived post completion of detailed designs, the official added.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport is a joint venture company promoted by the GMR Group (63 per cent) in partnership with the government of India (13 per cent), government of Andhra Pradesh (13 per cent) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (11 per cent).

PTI