GMR begins work on Hyderabad airport project

Barely a year ago, it was a dry and rocky patch of land. Today, the 5,000-acre land at Shamshabad, about 22 km from Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh, is mostly flat.
Huge construction cranes and heavy-duty construction equipment work at a frenzied pace, as engineers and workers hop from one work site to another.
About two years from now, the place will be transformed into a sprawling international airport, which will be able to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft like Airbus A-380s.
In fact, the GMR Hyderabad International Airport, being developed by GMR Infrastructure Ltd, will be more than just an airport.
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.
18/05/06 Amit Mitra/Hindu Business Line

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