Mumbai airport opts for fresh blueprint

Mumbai: Sixteen months after it took over India’s busiest airport, Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL)—the GVK-led joint venture consortium undertaking the overhaul of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA)—will on Saturday submit re-worked plans to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Curiously, most aspects of the master plan MIAL had submitted to the ministry nearly a year ago have significantly changed—including the design and look of the integra-ted terminal building at Sah-ar and the location of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower.
While MIAL is tightlipped about the finer details, Newsline has learnt that the design drawn up by MIAL’s master planners—Netherlands Airports Consultants BV (NACO)—has now been trashed and swapped for a fresh blueprint executed by the New York office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), one of the largest architectural firms in the US.
Now, the peacock-inspired design handpicked by MIAL Managing Director G V Sanjay Reddy himself of the terminal building has been drastically changed since it was a “compromise on efficiency and aesthetics”.
14/09/07 Lekha Agarwal/Expressindia.com

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Categories: Airports Sep 2007