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| T3's wonder world sets the stage for wanderlust |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Jun 24, 2010, 00:15 IST |
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IGI’s latest integrated passenger terminal opens on July 14.
The integrated terminal T3 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) is gearing up to offer enhanced passenger comfort and convenience when it throws its doors open to the public in mid-July.
Initially, international flights will avail the facility when it commences operation on July 14. Post July 30, domestic full service and low-cost carriers will start operating from T3. Budget carriers, in the meantime, will make use of terminal 1D.
The terminal sprawls over 5.6 million square feet. There will be 168 check-in counters and in-line baggage handling systems, with a capacity to handle 12,800 pieces of luggage every hour. Terminal operators GMR claim they will be able to reduce check-in and security procedures to less than 40 minutes at the facility.
There are 14 baggage reclaim belts including two belts for out-of-gauge bags. The baggage, post check-in, are filtered through five levels of screening including one through a CTX machine to ensure security standards are not violated. CTX machines capture and slice a 360-degree image of the object being scanned and are capable of detecting the thinnest film of explosive, if any.
“India does not have an international hub at present, due to which international flights stop over at Singapore and Dubai. With T3 in operation, the country can now boast of an integrated terminal. We have branded the space using Indian themes to distinguish it from other such facilities abroad,” said a GMR official.
The colour palette used to demarcate the desi and videshi sections, for instance, reflect traditional Indian spices. Enroute to the domestic and international passenger transfer sections, the waterwall on the left offers a depiction of the Himalayas, while the ‘Canyon’ (the central hall) has murals of mudras from Indian dance forms. Over 165,000 sq feet of floor area is carpeted to sound-proof the interiors and facilitate passenger comfort.
Connectivity to and parking at the terminal has been taken care of with a six-storied multi-level car parking facility adjacent to the premises. The car park has room for 4,300 vehicles.
The metro link will terminate within 150 metres of the passenger terminal building once the express route is commissioned in September.
A transit hotel, with 60 rooms on the airside and 40 on the landside, has been provided for on the premises. There is 215,000 square feet of retail space in the terminal premises.
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