Dream Hyderabad airport takes wings

Aware that a co-worker’s death had briefly halted work—they normally do eight-hour shifts for average wages of Rs 112 a day—they cast aside their safety helmets and relaxed. The death, they said, was tragic but it’s just “one of those things that can happen anywhere, anytime”.

“This is one of the biggest projects we have worked on. It involves laying 40,000 square feet of false ceiling. Ever since we left home three years ago, we have been travelling across the country. We came here some 10 days back,’’ says Manish Kumar, a 21-year-old from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, one of the two sub-contractors supplying labour for false ceiling work at the airport project site.

Manish has supplied nearly 25 hands, all from Muzaffarpur, aged between 18 and 25, for the airport project. Before he landed here, his labour force had been working at Cyberabad’s Hi-Tec City. They plan to be here for the next three months.

“We are being paid per square feet of false ceiling. It is decent money. We save most of it to take back home. Our food expenses are taken care of when there is work at large projects like this,’’ says Kishan, one from Manish Kumar’s labour force.

“We are brought in by 9 pm. Once work starts, it will stop only for lunch. The same pace is maintained after lunch. We are taken back by 6 pm,’’ says K Veeranna, a construction worker and painter from Mahboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. He’s on a year’s contract to work at the site. “We don’t have time to think of too many things when there’s work. Our stomachs should be full, that’s all,” he says. A man from Orissa runs a canteen to feed most workers at Veeranna’s work site.

“Today I went out to meet my family after a long time because my son called me on my mobile. I also had a small drink on the way back because once work starts, we will not be allowed to go out for another 10 days at least,’’ says Anil Kumar, an “air-con” worker and daily wager from neighbouring Shahpur.

The Hyderabad international airport is expected to be up and running by early 2008. A consortium, headed by the GMR Group along with the Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad, the Andhra government and the Airports Authority of India, is implementing the project.

Work is still in the very early stages at the site. The first concrete pour for the passenger terminal building, being built by China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Co Ltd, happened on October 10 last year.

The passenger terminal building is being built at a cost of Rs 615 crore and is spread over one-lakh square metres. A Rs 45-crore airside and landside works contract is being implemented by Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

Once completed, the new international airport will replace Hyderabad’s existing international airport at Begumpet. In its initial phase, the airport will have a capacity of five million passengers. It will eventually accommodate 20 million passengers annually. World class airport shopping experiences, relaxation and entertainment facilities will be made available at the airport.

FULL COVERAGE: FUTURE REPUBLIC