From T1 to T3 in minutes: Delhi airport to launch driverless air train; free service for transit flyers

NEW DELHI: Delhi airport’s long wait for an air train will end in 30 months, its operator has said.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) will now fund the setting up of a Rs 3,000 crore-4,000 crore automated people mover (APM) that will link Terminals 3/2, T1, Aerocity and cargo city for seamless transfers.

The airport operator took the decision on funding as its earlier plan of doing the project through a concessionaire -- in which a third party incurs the expense and recovers it through advertising and other means -- drew a blank. The air train will be free of charge for transit flyers. Only non-passengers will have to pay.

In an exclusive interaction with TOI on Monday, GBS Raju, the chairman of GMR Airports that operates IGIA, said: “We have to do it (APM) to create a world-class hub. When we started in 2006, the transfer passengers were 5%. Today it is 25% and growing. So inter-terminal connectivity is important. Just like runways and terminals, the APM is crucial for IGIA and will be ready in 30 months (by or in 2029).”

DIAL learnt a lesson from its experience two years ago when its tender for building a 7.7-km APM on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) model did not make headway. It got just one bid.

The airport operator will make the investment through internal accruals and recover the same through tariff and other sources of revenue, such as ads, to minimise the impact of the tariff.

“In the hub-and-spoke model, there are peak hours for transit connections -- from international to international, domestic to international, international to domestic and domestic to domestic. At those times, the APM will run non-stop between T1 and T3/2 without stopping at the stations of Aerocity and the cargo terminal,” said Raju, son of GMR group founder and chairman GM Rao.

As this is the first time an Indian airport is getting an air train, the rolling stock (train) technology provider and operator is likely to be from abroad. The laying of the tracks and building of stations will be done by an Indian company. “The stations will at terminal entrances and about 2-3 minute walking distance of other multi-modal stations ,” Raju said.

“Passengers will scan their boarding card to hop on the APM and proceed to the terminal their flight is from ,” Raju said. This is being done as, unlike most hubs abroad where no such scanning is required, Indian airports see a large number of people going to an airport to see off and receive passengers. The airport operator will put the APM expense it incurs in its submission to Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, based on which tariff will be determined.

“We are soon going to call for bids (from rolling stock service providers). DIAL will treat the two jobs — laying tracks, building stations; and rolling stock — separately. The civil work will be given to good construction companies. We have studied the technology used in South Korea, Jakarta, Italy and Switzerland. We visited them all and zeroed in on the most user-friendly and latest options,” he said.