By Pippa Crerar/Hyderabad
London mayor Boris Johnson yesterday said the British capital had “much to learn” from India on the future of airports as he set out his vision to build an “aerotropolis” around a new terminal in the Thames Estuary.
A town of about 20,000 people could spring up to the east of London based around a four-runway hub airport. It would have four or five “anchor” developments such as a hospital, university campus, a major business or exhibition centre to create thousands of jobs. A social infrastructure including homes, schools, shops, parks and a transport network would be a key part of the plan.
The mayor said he was “inspired” by his visit to Hyderabad’s two-runway airport - a leading example of an “aerotropolis” that is set to double in size over the next five years - on his week-long tour of India.
The scheme is the idea of American urban design expert Professor John Kasada, who advised the Hyderabad project and is expected to be invited to London by the mayor to help his submission to the Davies commission on aviation.
Stepping onto the tarmac, Johnson said: “This airport in Hyderabad is very impressive. The Indians are very ambitious but they are very efficient as they use the airport to grow the local economy. They are quite right. We have much to learn.”
Later, in a meeting with Indian infrastructure ministers, he said: “I very much admire that vision and I’m thinking along similar lines in London.
“We have an airports capacity crisis. Your vision of an aerotropolis is extremely powerful.”
Johnson received a briefing from airport boss Kiran Kumar Grandhi, who also built the new hi-tech hub airports at Delhi and Istanbul in record time.
Grandhi said: “We want to create the first Indian air city. We’ve got the basic airport infrastructure in place, now we’re trying to do various anchor developments.
“You need the social infrastructure to make it a living eco-system.”
A private health clinic - offering fly-in, fly-out operations - a Canadian business school campus, exhibition and convention centre and maintenance business are already under way on the 1.2mn square foot site, which serves a city of 7mn.
Johnson also picked up tips on funding the project - the mayor has said his Thames Estuary idea could be funded entirely by the private sector.
But Hyderabad airport, which was built in 31 months and serves 12mn passengers a year, was funded 30% by equity, 40% by debt, (four-fifths of which was domestic and the rest from Gulf states) and the remainder from government and state grants.
On Tuesday,Johnson waded into a row between steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and the French government as he urged Indian businessmen to set up in Britain.
The mayor accused France of “persecuting” big business after their industry minister said he wanted to kick the billionaire’s firm out of the country.
In a speech in Delhi, Johnson urged Indian tycoons to avoid the “eccentricities” of the French government and set up in London.
London already has eight times the amount of Indian foreign direct investment as Paris.
He told his audience: “On a day when the sans culottes appear to have captured the government in Paris and a French minister has been so eccentric as to call for a massive Indian investor to depart from France, I have no hesitation or embarrassment in saying to everyone here venez a Londres, mes amis, come to the business capital of the world. – London Evening Standard