Mumbai airport's world-class terminal ready for inauguration

After missing several deadlines in past three years and incurring over 32 per cent cost escalation, the new international terminal (T2) at the Mumbai airport is all set to be inaugurated tomorrow, promising to provide fliers a whole new experience with its features.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will dedicate the terminal, a spanking four-storey glass marvel, whose design has been inspired by a dancing peacock, to the nation.
However, the actual operations at the terminal is likely to commence from February. Earlier, the operation was to start from this month itself.
The T2 has come up at a whopping investment of Rs 9,800 crore as against initial projection of Rs 7,452 crore.

The sprawling premises boasts of tens of thousands of artifacts and paintings, housing arguably one the largest collections in the world at an airport.
The most attractive feature of the swanky terminal is the museum of artifacts. Stretching along a 3-km art wall, the museum houses over 7,000 artifacts collected from over 1,500 artists across the country.

The inauguration ceremony will be attended by political heavyweights like NCP President and Union Minister Sharad Pawar, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
Top brass from Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and Union Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, during whose tenure as Aviation Minister the decision to privatise Delhi and Mumbai airports was taken in 2006, will also be present.

Spread over an area of a little over 4.39 lakh square meters, the T2 has been designed to cater to an estimated 40 million passengers annually. One of the country's busiest airports currently caters 32 million passengers a year.
Under the privatisation policy of UPA-I Government the Delhi and Mumbai airports were given to private parities for modernisation in 2006.
While a GVK-led consortium bagged the contract for Mumbai airport, the Delhi airport went to a GMR-led entity. Even after privatisation, the state-run Airports Authority of India hold 26 per cent stake each in these two airports.
The state-of-the-art T2 will be larger than Singapore's Changi T3 (3.80 lakh sqm) and London's Heathrow T5 (3.53 lakh sqm). It will be able to accommodate 9,900 passengers during peak hours. It has a 7-lakh sq ft area of retail space, lounges and travel services.