Manish Sinha, a businessman from south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, leaves his house for the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) around two hours before the check-in, only to reach the airport just in time after braving peak-hour traffic jams.
Though the distance between Vasant Kunj and IGIA is around 12km, his route (via Outer Ring Road) includes two major choke points -- Rao Tula Ram Marg and the Airport Road meeting National Highway-8. His other option is to take the Mahipalpur Road, which again remains chock-a- block during peak hours.
Unreliable traffic
A study conducted by a PG student of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, Amal Jose, under the guidance of senior professor (transport planning) Dr. Sewa Ram, shows that Delhi’s IGI airport ranks the lowest out of 60 Indian airports in terms of “average speed” (time taken to reach airport from the city’s centre) and “reliability” (difference in minimum and maximum time). These were also compared under the same parameters with international airports.
According to the study, though Delhi tops the chart in other parameters, such as air and network connectivity and accessibility, its rank slumps in average speed taken to reach the airport. Also, there is a big difference between the minimum and maximum time taken to reach the airport, which reduces the reliability index.
In Delhi, the minimum time taken to reach the airport from Chandni Chowk (city centre), which is almost 18 km away from the airport, is 31 minutes. However, the maximum time with traffic is seen to be at least 76 minutes. The difference is almost 145%.
Public transport no relief
The average car speed in Delhi is lower than the Indian average of 29kmph. Hyderabad has the best average speed at 35.1kmph, while in Delhi a private car travelling from city centre to IGI Airport moves at 20.1kmph on an average. The international average speed is 52kmph.
“It is better to wait for some time at the airport than risk missing the flight. The Rao Tula Ram Marg and Airport Road are mostly packed with traffic and you can never estimate how much time you will take,” said Mr. Sinha.
The average speed improves while travelling from different parts of the city. For example, if a commuter is coming from Gurugram toward the airport, the speed automatically goes up.
The study reveals that the average time taken by commuters travelling in a car from all boundaries of the city is as high as 70.92 minutes. Using public transport makes the travel time worse. On a bus, a commuter’s average travel time is 117.4 minutes and via the metro it is 94.6 minutes.
In the overall ranking, which includes all factors such as air, network and land accessibility, reliability, travel time (after reaching the airport), speed and distance —Delhi retains its fist position because it makes up in other areas.
Dr. Sewa Ram says there are no benchmark parameters for Indian airports and it is important that the government fixes them for improving the overall service.
Last 5km slowest
“Apart from investing on airport infrastructure, it is a must that investment goes into improving the ground access transport system, which will help commuters reach the airport in time with high reliability,” said Dr. Ram.
A problem, according to Dr. Ram, that haunts Delhi is that the average speed drops drastically in the final 5-km radius of the airport. Data shows that the average speed 25km away from the airport is 23.5kmph.
This speed comes down to 21.3kmph at a distance of 15km, reaches 19.4kmph when 10km away from the airport and drops further to 16kmph in the final 5km radius from the airport.
In international cities such as London, New York and Tokyo, the average speed is maintained at 40kmph, and in the final five kilometres too the speed is higher than 30kmph.
Mr. Jose, who took over five months to complete the study, said the research will help the government get a comprehensive picture of the problems affecting the aviation sector. “Only developments within the airport won’t help. Overall development needs to take place, where accessibility to the airport is also taken into consideration,” he said.
