The Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi was earlier called the Palam Airport. The airport was built around the time of the 2^nd World War and was used as an Air Force Base for the Indian Air Force. Passenger operations, in those times, were being handled by the Safdargunj Airport. The passenger operations were then later shifted to Palam Airport in 1962.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport is the largest airport of all the Delhi airports. It is situated in the National capital, precisely in the Western region of Delhi, about 10 miles (16 kilometres) to the southwest of the city centre of New Delhi. This Delhi airport has been named after India’s first lady Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and it is by far the busiest airport in all of India, due to the amount of its daily flight traffic. As the operations at the new Terminal 3 have now commenced, New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport has now been crowned India’s as well as South Asia’s biggest and the most important aviation centre, with a current, mammoth capacity of being able to handle more than 47 million passengers. Combined with Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, this Delhi airport easily handles about half of the air traffic, of the whole of South Asia. During the period from April 2010 to November 2010, the airport in Delhi was termed the busiest airport of India in the case of overall passenger traffic and the second busiest in the country in terms of the international passenger traffic.

This airport in Delhi serves as the major civilian aviation centre for the National Capital Region of the country. This airport was previously handled and operated by the Indian Air Force but then later its management was handed over to the Airport Authority of India. In the month of May 2006, the management of the Indira Gandhi International Airport was transferred over to the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which is a joint project led by the GMR Group, which is also responsible for the Delhi Airport’s current modernization and expansion program.

In the year 2007, the Indira Gandhi International Airport was capable of handling 23 million passengers every year and the upcoming expansion program plans to increase its capacity to a massive 100 million passengers by the year 2030. The newly constructed Terminal 3 block is extremely huge and can handle about 34 million passengers every year, since the recently held Commonwealth Games 2010. This airport’s Terminal 3 has been conferred the title of being the eighth largest passenger terminal in the whole world. In the month of September 2008, Indira Gandhi International Airport opened a 2.75 mile long runway. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was also given the title of being the world’s fourth best airport in the category of 15-25 million and was then also awarded the Best Improved Airport in all of Asia-Pacific region by the Airport Council International.

Article Posted By : tamil  On May 27, 2011lView All Articles

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/delhi-airport-indira-gandhi-international-airport-article-22.htm

Keywords :
delhi airport , new delhi , delhi