T2 set to give Mumbai a flying start to new year

Apart from handling 40 mn flyers a year in an area of just 1,400 acres, the new airport terminal will showcase a 3-km-long art wall & peacock-inspired design

The design gives the impression of a thousand white peacocks in the sky; the 60-foot-tall walls have nearly 7,000 artefacts (some dating back to the 10th century) and as many as 1,000 lotus-shaped imported chandeliers greet you as you enter the state-of-the-art four-level building. It also has 226,000 sq ft of retail space offering everything that money can buy and over 53,000 sq ft of landscape, with 70 different plant species and giant waterfalls.

And, all of these are right in the heart of India’s commercial capital, where land, according to some GVK executives, is — and will remain — a four-letter word.

Welcome to Terminal 2 (T2) at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai’s Sahar that is due to be inaugurated by the prime minister on Friday. While GVK executives are still tight-lipped on when operations will begin, as a lot of security drill is still in process, the signboards all over the terminal are a giveaway: These remind everybody to be ready for the D-day in only 10 days; this means passengers will get to experience the real thing on January 15.

The sheer opulence of a grand new year gift to the city can take one’s breath away (a GVK executive says, tongue firmly in cheek, there should be a contingency plan for passengers who would refuse to leave the airport), while the small details of the plan to handle 40 million passengers a year (the current figure is 32 million) are where the biggest achievements lie.

What T2 offers
Consider this: After you drive through India’s only landscaped six-lane road from the Western Express Highway to the airport, you will reach the country’s biggest parking area, with a capacity to park 5,200 cars. You can drop off your bag on the conveyor belt right at the terminal gate, making trolleys redundant. The first scan of the baggage will be done right at the gate and if the system detects a foreign object in a bag, robotic arms will pick the bag up and isolate it.

The huge departure lounge at T2 will have 188 counters which will cater to all airlines. The design has been inspired by the white peacock

Both international and domestic passengers (the latter will have to wait for another year, as more work needs to be done) will use a common check-in process in the integrated terminal. The arrival area will have 18 carousels and the departure area will have 22. For frequent travellers hassled by the current airport’s cramped check-in counters and serpentine queues, T2 has 50,000 square metres of check-in halls.