The airport, named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is coming up on 5,400 acres of land.
The Rs.14.18 billion ($320 million) airport, being built by a consortium of construction major GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB), is to be operational by mid-2008 with a capacity of 3.7 million passengers per annum.
This is expected to go up to about five million by 2012, seven million by 2017 and nine million by 2021. The ultimate projected capacity of the airport will be 20 million passengers per annum by 2029.
The airport is expected to serve as a transit hub for the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It is also likely to become an operational hub of several airlines.
The decks for the mega public-private project were cleared when the concession agreement between the government of India and Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HAIL), the company formed by the consortium, was signed in December.
An official of GMR said a boundary wall spanning 24.5 km around the 5,000 acres of land has been constructed.
The airport would have one of the longest runways of 4,260 metres, 10 boarding bridges and 60 check-in counters and it would handle Airbus 380 and other wide-bodied aircraft.
The proposed airport would have several unique features including `Airport Village,' which will boast of shopping malls both for travellers and for people based in the city, sound-proof terminal building and disabled-friendly features.
Air Sahara has already launched its hub in Hyderabad. The promoters are holding talks with other airlines to make the city their primary or secondary hubs.
Once the new airport becomes operational, the existing airport at Begumpet in the heart of the city would be shut down. The present airport handles 2.2 million passengers a year.
