The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) was inaugurated on March 14, 2008 and commenced its commercial operations from March 23, 2008. Airport is build by Joint Venture Company GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) promoted the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with government of India (13%), government of Andhra Pradesh (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11%). The Company was incorporated to design, finance, build, operate and maintain a world class Greenfield airport at Shamshabad, Hyderabad. The project is based on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and is structured on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
The airport is commissioned in a record time of 31 months, with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 100,000 tons 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.
The airport provides world-class facilities and infrastructure, in accordance with ICAO standards and practices to handle large aircraft and international traffic. Its integrated domestic and international terminals are equipped with 12 contact boarding bridges, 30 remote stands, Common User Terminal Equipment, self check-in kiosks and 46 immigration counters. It also incorporates modern IT systems including Flight Information Display Screens, Baggage Handling System, and Airport Operational Database technology for the first time in India. RGIA is the first Indian airport to have the Airport Operations Control Centre which acts as the nerve centre for all coordination within the airport.
Airport has the potential to not only become one of the main air travel hubs in India, but also an important centre for destination-cum-transit location for travel between the East and the West. The modular integrated Cargo facility is spread over 14330 sq m with a capacity to handle 100000 MT annually.
Objective
Initial objective was to build a world class international airport of international standard with initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum and 100000 tons of cargo handling capacity per annum in time frame of 36 months with cost budget of Rs 1761 crores.
Master plan objective is to expand the capacity to 40 million passenger per annum and freedom for expansion in terms of landside and airside facilities
Project Life Cycle
Project Selection
Previous airport in Begumpet, Hyderabad has been experiencing increased air traffic with civil aviation sector has been experiencing and extraordinary growth of 46.5% in 2006 and 32.5% in 2007. It was estimated that by 2020, Indian airports have to handle approximately 100 million passengers and cargo in the range of 3.4m tones p.a.
The goal was to build a new airport to match the above increasing requirement. GoI estimated the phase 1 cost to be 1761 crores.
HIAL's revenues have a scope to grow with an increase in the traffic. Being a Greenfield development, the airport authority has a permission to levy User Development Fee (UDF) for every departing domestic and international passenger and with the expansion of non-aero revenues, the EBITDA is expected to grow in the immediate future. Valuation is based on a 60 years model and incorporates revenues from aero side only valuations to that extent are conservative and have a scope of upside.
Concept Phase
Master plan is to build airport with capacity of 40 million passengers per annum which will be able to handle large aircrafts like Airbus A380 with two runways and two terminal buildings and a separate terminal for low cost airlines
Main stakeholders for this project are GMR Infrastructure, Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad, Government of India, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Airports Authority of India, Airline Operators, Construction Contractors, Local Power and Water supply and citizens.
Risks associated with the projects are mainly
Variation in air traffic and passenger forecasting
Delay in completion of the project and cash inflows
Delay in land acquisition and compensation to stakeholders
Environmental clearance of the project â€" noise, air, and waste
Political unrest and logjam
Design revision to scope changes like passenger increase
Development Phase
Whole project is broken into 3 phases with phase 1 having three sub-phases
Phase 1A: Up to 5 million passengers per annum
The terminal is designed to have the capacity to handle 5 million passengers per annum and has an area of 104100 sq m which includes technical services zone of 17000 sq m below the arrivals level and an outside circulation area at departures level of 1750 sq m. Other buildings namely ATC and technical building, cargo (100,000 tonnes capacity) aircraft maintenance airport maintenance CFR station and utilities with combined area of 35000 sq m.
Phase 1B: Up to 7 million passengers per annum
All phases beyond Phase 1A have to be triggered by actual traffic volume. The capacity has to be increased to 7 million passengers per annum by adding passenger boarding bridges and aircraft stands. Low cost terminal (LCT) for 0.3 million passengers per annum had to be built in addition with VIP terminal and a facility for General Aviation (GA)
Phase 1C: Up to 10 million passengers per annum
The capacity of the terminal building has to be increased to 10 million passengers per annum with an additional area of 37000 sq m. The capacity of the LCT has to be increased to 0.5 million passengers per annum and the area of additional maintenance facilities, catering and offices will be of the order of 40000 sq m.
Phase 2: Up to 20 million passengers per annum
Terminal 1 will be approaching to full therefore needs to be expanded to an area of 250,000 sq m and LCT to be expanded to its full capacity of 1.5 million passengers per annum. The second runway needed before the construction of Terminal 2. A major increase in all the established facilities is foreseen in addition to major increases in hotel, office, cargo and maintenance facilities. The total built up area at the end of this phase is approximately 470000 sq m
Final Phase: Capacity of 40 million passengers per annum
Airport would be reaching to its full maturity. An additional floor area of 430,000 sq m to be constructed bringing the total built area to 900,000 sq m. Ultimate master plan is for 40 million passengers per annum. Master Plan allows freedom for expanding both airside and landside facilities within the Airport site. Further acquisition of land to the north and south will allow expansion of the runway system with a third and fourth runway resulting in the parallel runways on both sides.
Milestones of Phase 1
Milestones
Date
Initiation of land acquisition
March 2004
Completion of rehabilitation
May 2004
Handing over of site to HIAL
June 2004
Start of boundary wall construction
June 2004
Completion of boundary wall
January 2005
Start of site preparation works
January 2005
Financial Closure
August 2005
Concrete Pour
October 2005
Elevated Slab Pour
March 2006
Operations Start
March 2008
Learnings
There was Cost Overrun in the project Phase 1 (actual cost 2478 crores and estimated cost 1761 crores). The factors which contributed to the increased cost were
Under estimation of passengers leading to under estimation of costs by 500 crores
Hike in Cement and Steel prices
Pressure for on time completion of phase 1
Time over run by a week initially due to handling issues and delay in closure of old airport
Hence it becomes essential there has to be accuracy in forecasting being done. Accuracy doesn’t mean that it has to match with the actual figures rather should be close or based on certain criteria or some slack given. Anticipation of resource cost in near future and the mitigation of such risks through hedging and other ways.
No time overrun occurred instead finished within 31 months. The modular approach of phase 1 project helped overall to achieve the goal in a given time frame.
