I was waiting for a chance to see the new airport of which I had heard so much. Finally this weekend, I got a chance to fly to Mangalore and back.
As the taxi neared the airport, the control tower started to appear. Then finally the airport. It was a great feeling to see the huge airport. The roads into and outside the airport are well planned. I did not find much of a jam at the place where we got down. Compare this will the perennially jammed old airport. Then, there is a nice and spacious waiting place even outside the airport, with some good eat-outs. After some small snacks we entered the airport building, and a sense of pride swept through me as I saw the open spaced, glossy floored huge building. The freshness of the new building was very much rampant. Then to the first floor for the security check, and then to the gate lounge. All this was again very much comparable to the ones I had seen outside India. Also, I wont be doing justice if I dont mention the clean toilets compared to the ones in the old airport.
On my return, one other thing that gave me the greatest relief was the baggage claim. I always associated this aspect as the worst thing in our old airport, but here it was just state of the art.
Firstly there are around 8 to 10 conveyor belt lanes. Compare this with 2 at the old airport. Second, its well planned and there is no scope for baggage jam like in the previous one. And then when you come out with the baggage, you will again see the different lanes. One is the pick-up and drop lane. The other is for the taxis. And then for the city bus.
Having heard about "Vaayu Vajra" so much, I decided I will try that instead of a taxi. Fortunately there was one just ready to leave, towards my route. With 150 Rupees, I was dropped to the end of road of where I stay (Basaveshwarnagar). I had never expected so much of connectivity through this bus service. Also, its a super comfortable bus, better than any taxi. For those of you who would want to work, there are laptop switches as well. But I sat there for about an hour just listening to music and feeling good about the new airport.
A state of the art airport is what Bangalore badly wanted at this point of time. And we could not have asked for more. And I think we should pardon the inconvinience caused because of it is remote location, as this is the case with most international airports, be it Heathrow or JFK. When the airport had just opened I had only heard about people's complaints. I think the industry leaders who complained so much ought to acknowledge the facilities once everything is in place. Its sad why nobody writes about the positives after a few months and stop at the wrong note. Anyways for me it was something that made me totally proud as a Bangalorean.
