They want to develop it as an airport village, with hotels, malls, theme parks and restaurants, besides the airport. When these facilities are fully developed, the revenue from the non-aero stream will be as much as 65-70 per cent.
First phase
After the first phase of the project is completed by the first quarter of 2008 at a cost of Rs 1,760 crore, the existing airport at Begumpet will be closed down for commercial operations and the entire traffic diverted to the new facility. The first phase of the airport project will have the capacity to handle about 7 million passengers, which will go up to 40 million passengers after the entire project is wrapped up. At present, the Begumpet airport handles four million passengers. They expect to handle 6.5 million passengers and one lakh tonnes of cargo in our first year of operation.
The first phase of the project will consist of a single runway, a passenger terminal building and a cargo terminal building. The runway is planned to be 4,260 metres, making it the longest runway in India - its width will be 75 metres so that it can accommodate the wide-bodied aircraft used by airlines like Emirates and Lufthansa.
Subsequent phases
There is a requirement to construct a second runway when traffic volume exceeds 15 million passengers a year and at this point, the terminal building will be expanded in modular fashion to accommodate up to 20 million passengers. In subsequent phases, a second terminal building, capable of accommodating another 20 million passengers, will be set up. The company expects to earn a revenue of Rs 400 crore in the first year of operation, based on the revenue earnings of the existing Begumpet airport and growth projections. This will include the aero charges such as landing charge, handling charge and user development charge, apart from non-aero revenue such as cargo handling, aircraft maintenance and commercial projects. GMR is going by a well laid-out time schedule. Having completed site preparation work last month, the company plans to complete the shell of the passenger terminal building, air traffic control tower, a majority of the runway work, fuel farm and retain concessionaires in the current fiscal.
Telecom contract
TVS Interconnected Systems Ltd (TVSICS), part of the $3-billion diversified TVS Group, has bagged a mandate to partner with Siemens Information Systems consortium to develop a structured telecom backbone network for Hyderabad International airport. While the nature of job for the new airport is being finalised, the deal could typically be valued at about 10 per cent of the airport cost. The company refrained from giving the deal size, but it could potentially be worth $20-30 million initially.
