New Delhi International Airport Expansion – India
The new Terminal 3 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport will be the world’s second largest airport terminal. Due for completion by mid-2010, in time for the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games, the US$2 billion development will occupy 520,000m² and be able to accommodate 34 million passengers each year. The terminal, approximately three kilometers in length, will feature 160 check-in counters, 78 aerobridges and 85 aircraft stands. In addition, the expansion project also includes a new runway. At 4,430 meters, it will be Asia’s second longest and be able to accommodate the world’s largest aircraft.
To ensure the project is complete in time for the Commonwealth Games, the construction timetable has been compressed to just 39 months. Compared to the timeline of other new airport terminals, this is highly ambitious. Completion of the new terminal at Changi Airport in Singapore, for example, took 76 months and delivery of London Heathrow Airport’s T5 and Beijing’s Terminal 3 each took 60 months.
“Aconex is now an indispensible element of the project. Every document and mail distribution is searchable and accessible from remote locations. If I’m going from Delhi to Mumbai, for example, I can pick up documents whenever I need them.
“Due to our timeline we have very strict review cycles and so the distribution of documents between parties has to be fast. We have a wide team of stakeholders, often about 1,200 engineers engaged on the project, and so distributing the right files to these people is a complex task. Previously, when reviewing and corresponding using email, we’d get bounce-backs and there would be no record of what was sent and received. When information is sent on Aconex, we know it’s reached the recipient and will be responded to.
“The quality of the customer service and training facilities that Aconex provides is striking. Being able to provide local training to our entire global project team was a very strong advantage and a key reason why we selected them. New participants are quickly comfortable using the system and there is a helpline for when you need to speak to someone. At one stage, we even had an Aconex representative sitting in our office to help us out. The service is first-rate.” – Mr Shankar Narayannan, Head of Project Controls at Larsen & Toubro on the DIAL Project.
Head Contractor
Larsen & Toubro Limited
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