With opening of new airports begins a hard time for many

Bangalore/ Hyderabad: The journey to airports opening in the suburbs of Bangalore and Hyderabad poses a potential headache not just for airline passengers, but also for the workers who make up the ecosystem of air travel.
Much is at stake for the airport developers, who rely on such workers to ensure operations run smoothly. Hyderabad’s new airport, for example, has been touted as an example of the ability of a homegrown infrastructure developer, southern business house called GMR Group, to build a worldclass aviation hub.
The new airport, run by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (Ghial) on the city’s Shamshabad outskirts, begins operations after midnight on Sunday.
Some 500km south-west of Hyderabad, a new airport at Bangalore promises similar fate to the likes of K. Somanna, a 33-year-old cab driver.
Somanna apart, most among the 3,000 workers contracted at the HAL airport stand to lose jobs because Bial—as also Ghial in Hyderabad—has chosen other concessionaires for activities such as ground and baggage handling, cleaning stands, etc.
14/03/08 Ajay Sukumaran and C.R. Sukumar/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008