Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday inaugurated Terminal 2 of Chhattrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.
Among other things, the airport will be home to India’s largest public art programme. It will have a 3-km-long art wall that features 7,000 pieces of artefacts from different parts of the country. The launch of operations has been pushed to February 12 in order to familiarise the various airport departments with the terminal's layout, facilities and systems. The terminal, which has been built at a cost of Rs 5,500 crore, will undergo a comprehensive security sweep in addition to airport transfer tests before the launch of operations.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Singh said, "This terminal is expected to establish new global bench-marks of functional efficiency and operational safety for airports. It also exemplifies our ability as a nation to build world-class infrastructure. I have no doubt that this terminal will fulfill the expectations we have from it and make us all feel very proud."
"This is a reasonable expectation given that the new terminal has the latest design features and particularly meets international standards in addressing critical environmental concerns like those of energy and water efficiency and indoor air quality. It is passenger friendly and the conveniences of all categories of passengers, including people with reduced mobility, have been an important consideration in its design. Particular emphasis has been given to build strong airside capabilities, resulting in significant improvement in hourly runway movements," he added.
Encouraging private players to enter into partnership with the government, Dr. Singh said, "The construction of the new terminal is yet another shining example of successful execution of large infrastructure projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model which our Government has encouraged in recent years. I am very happy that the PPP model has worked particularly well in the civil aviation sector, with 5 PPP airports now handling about 57% of the passenger traffic and about 70% of the cargo in our country. The success of Terminal-2 should give a boost to other PPP projects in the country, which are under implementation or are at the planning stage."
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