Air Realities

Rabindra Seth - New Delhi

It has often been said that when it comes to infrastructure India has always built for yesterday, never for tomorrow. A glaring example of this are our airports, especially those handling international traffic. Take the flagship Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi. It had already become obsolete when it was commissioned with much fanfare in the early ’80s. The shortcomings are not just in size, design or facilities but also in management. In the last two decades our Asian neighbours have built huge, swanky and modern airports matching the best in the developed world. You only have to ask Indian visitors who have been to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong and they will tell you how futuristic these airports are.

Fortuitously, there has been an awakening among the powers that be to do something about our airports which will not only improve connectivity so crucial to tourism, but will also help significantly in the general economic development of the country apart from providing a better image to visitors at the start of their discovery of India. The process of privatisation of the international airports started by the NDA government (which the compulsion of coalition dharma has forced the new government to rechristen modernisation) is still on and one can look forward to immensely better facilities at least by 2010 when the Commonwealth Games are due to be held in Delhi.

At a time when a new approach to tomorrow’s airports is evolving, a book by a senior aviation writer, Kishin R Wadhwaney who retired from the Indian Express as its assistant editor (sports) has come at an opportune moment. The title of the book ‘Indian Airports - Shocking Ground Realities’ says it all. The 263 pages and a score of chapters cover a wide range of subjects from vulnerable airports, loot from aircraft, smuggling, to overbooking, offloading and hijacking. There is a well thought out tribute to JRD Tata (‘JRD was the pioneer’). Even such issues as human trafficking are commented upon.

In a foreword, the noted aviator, Air Marshal (retd) D Keelor has described it as a ‘very hard-hitting book - perhaps the need of the hour - it is highly critical and, therefore, controversial. But it is eminently readable because it provides a lot of ‘food for thought’ to even those who are at the helm of civil aviation in the country’.

Wadhwaney’s credentials are strong for he took to airport reporting as a labour of love; the remuneration was a pittance. But then for decades he had a ringside view of the goings on at the capital’s entry point. His account of the poor management or individual lapses is based on personal experience and should be of great help to the management of the modernised airport in checking such malpractices and making the facilities user-friendly. In his preface he comes straight to the point when he talks of what ails IGIA and other entry points. “India’s airports,” Wadhwaney says, “do not reveal the vibrancy, diversity, cultural and spiritual heritage of the nation. Instead they show its inhabitants in a poor light despite age-old noble traditions. There is nothing but ‘jungle raj’ obtaining here,” and adds, “not that corruption does not exist in other countries. But, here corruption has become a part of the system.”

Wadhwaney’s advice to those who are planning a modern (or modernised) airport at Delhi is to utilise the existing IGIA for domestic travel. The Indian Airlines departure area should be converted into an airport museum and the terminal used by private carriers like Jet and Sahara should be demolished as it is more than 60 years old. There is plenty of land to build a brand new terminal for the new international airport. And, why not build golf courses and other leisure facilities in the environs of the new edifices, he asks. Surprisingly, Wadhwaney does not recall that a project to build an international class gold course in the vicinity of IGIA was seriously considered in the mid ’90s but it never took off because some senior officials in the then PMO could not agree on how to go about it!

Wadhwaney, like many others and even official committees, points to the plethora of agencies that manage our international airports and the absence of a single authority with enough teeth to ensure a coordinated effort. Hopefully, this will be on the top of the agenda of the decision makers in charge of modernisation. One good news is that the prime minister heads the committee of ministers who will be overseeing the core infrastructure in which airports find a prominent place.