3 months ago
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Built connected bare onshore successful 31 months, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has since evolved into a rapidly expanding aviation hub that has had to accommodate to unpredictable rider growth, technological shifts and the complexities of upgrading infrastructure portion remaining afloat operational, said Pradeep Panicker, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), astatine a sheet titled “Collaborative Transformation: Developing and Operating Airports of the Future” astatine Wings India 2026.
Recalling the aboriginal days of the airport, Mr. Panicker said the greenfield task was comparatively straightforward. “There was thing connected the onshore there. We conscionable had to commencement levelling the onshore and commencement gathering it,” helium said, noting that the airdrome was completed successful astir 31 months.
The aboriginal brownfield expansion, however, presented a antithetic acceptable of challenges. Undertaken connected the aforesaid confederate tract arsenic the existing airport, the enlargement followed a modular approach, extending from the existing footprint. While this provided an accidental to larn from acquisition and close errors oregon evolving elements from the earlier phase, it besides required navigating the realities of an operational airport.
One of the cardinal challenges was the accelerated gait of technological change. Mr. Panicker pointed retired that the exertion successful spot successful 2008 was nary longer capable by 2024 oregon 2025. “As a result, older systems often had to beryllium removed and replaced with newer ones.,” helium said.
When the airdrome began operations, it handled astir 50 to 55 lakh passengers annually, with projections initially looking astatine maturation to 1.2 crore. However, postulation did not travel predictable patterns. Between 2008 and 2014, rider numbers accrued from 50 lakh to 1 crore. From 2014 to 2019, postulation roseate much sharply from 1 crore to 2 crore, an acceleration helium described arsenic unprecedented. The latest information by GMR airports shows that successful 2024-25, RGIA clocked 2.9 crore passengers including 2.4 crore home and 50 lakh planetary passengers.
