G. V. Sanjay Reddy narrates the story behind building the best airport terminal in the world
Sanjay Reddy
Good afternoon, fellow Rotarians. It is a pleasure to introduce G. V. Sanjay Reddy. I think for all of us, who have used the new airport at Mumbai, it is a matter of delight — compared to what we were used to in Mumbai or anywhere else. I will let Sanjay talk about the airport today, but there are a few things that deserve a mention. Sanjay is a unique personality and a shy person. I first got to know him in 1999 through GVK Biosciences, a contract research organisation and a very successful company, which people don’t know about. In addition to the airports, he has worked on many power plant projects, be it coal-based, gas-based or hydro-based. He has embarked on a massive 10 billion dollar project in Australia, where he has bought some mines and is now building a small railway line and a port to transport the coal to the rest of the world. But one of the things that I am most proud about is an initiative called GVK EMRI, one of the country’s largest ambulance services. Sanjay and Pinky never talk about it. I could go on and on about Sanjay but I will stop here and just say that we have a terrific and unique individual here today. Over to you, Sanjay.
— Rtn. Manish Kejriwal
Thank you, Manish. This is the first time that I am attending a Rotary meeting. The story that I am going to tell you is centered around the national anthem. It is about India, our pride, our country. The GVK Group will operate the Mumbai airport for the next 55 years. Every single initiative that we take up is focused on doing something more than just making money. The Mumbai airport is one such example. We focus a lot on environment sustainability, community development, art, culture and sports, which you can get to see at the Mumbai airport. In terms of airport business, we are present in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Indonesia and Bali. We got into the airport business only in 2006, when we won the Mumbai airport bid. Since then, we built 360-degree capabilities — from design and construction to operation and commercial management.
The Mumbai airport is the most constrained airport in the world. We had to deal with a huge challenge — the lack of land. Every single acre of the land that we got in 2006 was occupied. Slums covered nearly 300 acres. Compared to this, all other airports in India and the world had more acres of land available.
So what do you do? We won the bid but not much information was shared by the government. Even the plan they gave as part of the bid was wrong, the dimensions were incorrect. Out of 2,000 acres, only 900 acres were in the name of the Airport Authority. For the first six months we were sorting out 200 litigations so that the title of the lease is proper.
Besides, I was based in Hyderabad and our headquarters is in Hyderabad. We moved to Mumbai for this challenging project without any airport experience. I only had one person with me and that person had retired from the Airport Authority of India. After winning the bid, we started hiring people but couldn’t hire in India because they were all government employees. We had to bring in expats. We had to literally demolish and rebuild everything because there was no other way to build new infrastructure, runways, taxiways and terminals. We had to use the ‘carrot and stick method’ to convince people. It was the most complex infrastructure project of the world. We went through delays and faced many challenges such as rehabilitation of the slum families, dealing with the mindsets of political parties, who had very strong views and smuggling. The main challenge, however, was a fabulous Shivaji statue right in the middle of the location, where we had to build a terminal. Balasaheb had fought for nearly 20 years to get that Shivaji statue. How could I shift it? But we believe in building relationships on trust and it took me three years, I won’t say to convince him, but for him to recognise that we are here to do good. He finally agreed. He was a wonderful person and I really miss him.
We had to also present designs to the government and get their approvals. We couldn’t build two parallel runways in Mumbai because, again, there is no land. We had to upgrade the air field. We did everything in bits and pieces. We also had to keep our eye on ASQ — Airport Service Quality, an international organisation that comes to survey your airport.
Now coming to the terminal, when we conceptualised the design I took inspiration from our country’s beauty, art, history and architecture. I feel Indians don’t recognise and value the richness of our culture and heritage. I thought it was time to get them back to believe in India. We used peacock, our national bird, as an inspiration for our design. We also wanted a nice entrance. We discussed the access to the airport with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and a good officer called Chandrashekar. The MMRDA was in the process of building a flyover. We suggested a six-lane road with direct access from the Western Express Highway. We went on a helicopter survey, decided how to do it and jointly built it.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, an American architectural and engineering firm, took care of the design. It took me time to convince them about the designs I had in mind; people like Abu Sandeep helped me in the process. We wanted to welcome people from immigration so we included the diya curtains. We came up with an art programme called “Jaya He”, the words are part of our national anthem. There was no better way to pay respect to our country. The art programme covers every single region of India and exposes us to its beautiful culture.
We also completed the ATC tower six months ago and it is currently India’s largest ATC tower. Many of you will see it while crossing the domestic terminal. I want to close by saying that all this was possible because of an amazing team. I used to tell them, “When you grow old and have your grandchildren and when you walk through this airport you should be able to tell them, with pride, that I played a part in making it happen.”
Some excerpts from the Q&A session:
Q: Most of the artworks are in the Arrivals section. We are worn out during the long walk towards exit, carrying our luggage. You have to crane your neck to look at the art. Will you address this? When will the domestic
operations shift?
Sanjay: While the artworks in the Arrivals section are more contemporary, the ones in the Departures section are traditional. The most exclusive art, is in the Departures section. But unfortunately what you are seeing is only a small part. Once the terminal opens up completely, it can be viewed better. The terminal currently handles only international operations. Next year, about 60 to 70 per cent of the domestic operations also will shift here. It will take a year because the existing international terminal is next to the new terminal. We have to demolish that, and build the apron and aerobridges.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced? There is also the problem of mosquitoes at the airport.
Sanjay: Many people questioned my intentions. They were just short of saying your company is corrupt and you’ll are here only to mint money. I will never forget that. But it also drove me to do better. Sometimes it is good to be questioned because it motivates you to work harder and succeed. Regarding your second question, the problem of mosquitoes was something that we didn’t foresee. The airport is very close to the Mithi river, where there is an infection problem. At the entrance, the doors are always open and once these mosquitoes enter it is very difficult to get them out. But we are doing a lot of things, such as putting up air curtains.
Q: What about infrastructure of this country? What about roads and connectivity to villages? Will you give it a thought?
Sanjay: Certainly. We are in the middle of elections; let’s hope a good government is formed and they initiate new projects.