The new Hyderabad Airport at Shamshabad (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport) is all set to open on March 16. Apollo is setting up a Medical Center at the airport to cater to the medical needs there. Recently there was a disaster drill (which unfortunately had to be aborted) and a visit by Apollo’s senior doctors and management. I’ve got some nice pics of both the visits on my flickr page. Check them out here:
Airport Disaster Drill
Visit to the New Hyderabad International Airport
The new airport is one huge thing and unlike anything you would have ever seen in India. The current structure is supposed to be designed to handle 12 million passengers a year (current Hyderabad traffic is around 7 million passengers). When the whole airport is completely built it would be able to handle 40 million passengers a year, but that’s still quite a few years away. They’ve built loads of check in counters and huge baggage claim areas, so I guess long queues should be a thing of the past.
The only problem is the distance of the airport from the city. Currently it’ll take about 1 to 1.5 hours from Banjara Hills to reach the airport. The expressway is going to take ages to be ready. So if you’re planning day-trips to Hyderabad, think twice!!
Update: Right after the inauguration they announced that the new Airport’s launch will be delayed. It seems that the airlines are not ready to tie up with the new ground handling agencies since they are charging a bomb! Well whatever the reason, atleast I’m happy that Begumpet airport is open for a little while longer 
Some photos:
Apollo’s Airport Medical Team:
The airport:
The departure area:
I’m sure you’ve heard this a dozen times by now… but I couldn’t resist sharing it again!
The Financial Times has ranked ISB 20th in their global MBA rankings.
Not bad for a young school and its the only one from India….
In true ISB tradition there’s some cool parties planned for the weekend! Looking forward to that.
Over the last 6 months I’ve been back to the ISB campus on many occasions. However, Solstice was a completely different experience, especially since we could see some familiar faces around!
All our gang was back and we spent 3 great days together. Friends, parties, booze, Indian Ocean live, paintball and, of course, gyaan sessions (with anyone who’s company name had the word “consulting” the most sought after!) It was amazing stuff. And since a picture says more than a thousand words, here’s some snaps from Solstice…
All my Solstice pictures here.
Its time for another Solstice at ISB. I still can’t believe that its been 6 months since we got done with ISB and started our jobs….
I’m pretty excited about being back to campus with all my friends around! 3 days of fun!!!!!!!!
Look out for a ton of photos next week
Reuters.com reports that Delhi Traffic Police has started fining jaywalkers in Delhi!
Having lived in Delhi for 25 years, and probably crossing roads independently for 15 of them, I think that extremely few motorists (or for that matter pedestrians) understand the concept of pedestrian crossings. Inching forward at a red light to get to the front of the traffic is like second nature for everyone, especially bikes and scooters (which will then promptly stall the moment the light turns green!!) Most of the time they can’t even see the traffic light, its only the honking behind them that lets them know that its green (whatever happened to the ban on honking at the red light???). All of which hardly leaves any space for pedestrians, who then have to weave their way through bumper-to-bumper traffic to cross the roads.
And its not to say that pedestrians aren’t to be blamed. I think subways in Delhi are only for stray dogs and the homeless. At every place where there is a subway, people will always cross the road despite zooming traffic. (Doesn’t it always seem that the stupid pedestrian wants to cross just when my car has picked up speed???)
Anyways, back to the fine…. its a paltry Rs. 20 but the enforcement that’s going on these days seems to have pedestrians queuing up on both sides of the roads!!! (What I wouldn’t give for a picture of this!) I just hope the police also “educate” motorists on the need to leave pedestrian crossings clear, and save some broken bones and lives…
Any bets on what the next ban is going to be about???
