Will The New Airport In Navi Mumbai Address Issues Of Passenger Convenience?

The Kempegowda airport in Bangalore opened in May 2008. It was probably the first modern airport in the country with a large terminal. It had several escalators to move passengers and also a modern food court, which is now a standard feature in all new airports. The special feature of this airport was that the authorities had started a bus service to different locations in the city, which is 35 kms away. The services were regular and touched all important points from where passengers could take alternative transport facilities to reach their destinations. The prices were fixed and reasonable and provided comfortable journeys to passengers.

Enabling such facilities was important, as all new airports have tended to be located away from the main cities so as to have larger structures to accommodate more flights and passengers. Also, it is believed that having such airports in the outskirts can reduce congestion within the cities. However, once airports shift to the outer circles of cities, the challenge for passengers is to reach them on time. Often the time taken to reach the airport would be longer than the flight time, excluding the mandatory two-hour advance check-in, which is insisted upon by airlines. Therefore, easy connectivity is a prerequisite for ensuring smooth travel, especially so as airports charge passengers a fee for using the facility.

The famous terminal in Delhi, T3, has an airport express, which can take passengers to the centre of the city in less than 20 minutes, and one can then switch over to the metro along the way. In Mumbai the situation is different. The T2 terminal, which is probably the grandest terminal in India, can be a nightmare for anyone who is not familiar with the city. While there are some bus services, the connectivity is limited, and one ends up getting fleeced by cab drivers. If one were to travel to Terminal 1, it would not be too good an experience, given the traffic congestion, and would possibly miss the flight if the timeline is tight.

Against this background, the commissioning of a new airport in Navi Mumbai can be looked at. The airport evidently has been presented as an ultra-modern one, with multiple runways and lavish facilities. It is to be even more magnificent than the T2 of Mumbai and promises to be an experience for all passengers.

However, three questions come to mind as to whether certain tick boxes have been addressed. First, whether or not the commute from the new airport to the rest of the city has been thought through, as there can be very long journeys, which can put one back by a couple of thousand rupees. Second, while there are indications of multiple runways, would flights be able to simultaneously take off and land, as it happens in other developed countries, or would it be like the present Mumbai airport, where both legs of flights use the same runaway, leading to cascading delays? Third, as the T2 terminal will be retained, would there be connectivity between the two so that passengers who have connecting flights can take them? The last probably will not be possible, given that the two cities are virtually different. Evidently, one has to be careful about booking their tickets if there is any connection involved. This is not unique to India because London and New York have multiple airports, which are located in different parts of the city. One takes care while booking connecting flights, keeping this in mind.

The problem with Indian infrastructure is that while a lot of money is spent, planning for the last mile always takes a back seat. The thought is that those who have to travel will have to figure out the way, and it is not the responsibility of any authority. The focus is invariably on completing projects as quickly as possible so that there are few time or cost overruns. But the issue of connectivity is seldom on the agenda. Ideally, when the metro system was planned in Mumbai, over 10 years ago, the Navi Mumbai airport should have been considered.

This is probably the major challenge in most infrastructure projects in countries that are trying to accelerate the pace of construction to offer better services to their citizens. The IMF had undertaken a study to assess how efficient highways are across countries in 2022. Based on Google Maps, one can ascertain the time taken to traverse between two cities. The study looked at the time taken between one pivot city and 4 other major cities in the country. For India, it was Mumbai to Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. This was done for 160 countries. Besides congestion, the analysis was to reflect the quality of roads. If the quality of roads was not optimal, in terms of levelling or pot holes, the time taken would be more, and, accordingly, the average speed would tend to come down.

The results were interesting. The lowest speed was in Bhutan, at 38 km/hour, based on the terrain-adjusted harmonic mean. The highest was the USA, with 107 km/hour, while it was 58 km/hour for India. Interestingly, African countries like Senegal, Malawi, etc., had average speeds of above 70 km/hour, with Namibia at a high of 99 km/hour. Admittedly, the traffic density has helped to push up speed.

The limited point here is that while the focus should be on accelerating the build-up of infrastructure in the country, attention should be paid, in parallel, to the quality and durability of roads and ancillary services for airports.

It may be hoped that given that there have been several lessons that have been learnt from building new airports across the world, including India, this particular aspect has been addressed so that once the new airport is functional, there would be seamless movements of both passengers and aircrafts to enhance efficiency. In fact, the tarmac issue is also important since airlines do face challenges of cascading delays, which also affect use of fuel, mainly due to congestion.

The author is Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda and author of ‘Corporate Quirks: The Darker Side of the Sun’. Views are personal