Hyderabad: A recent study done by the students of Delhi-based School of Planning and Architecture at 62 airports in the country has revealed that Hyderabad had good connectivity to its airport at Shamshabad. As per the study, the city topped in speed and emerged third in terms of time taken to reach the airport from various parts of the city. The study was taken up by post-graduate students under the guidance of professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture, Dr Sewa Ram. Dr Ram said that although there was no rail connectivity to RGIA from Hyderabad, the PVNR Expressway had made it easy for air passengers to reach the airport in a shorter time as compared to other metros.
The study said that the city ranked first in land accessibility among metro airports followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. In terms of time taken from various corners of the cities to reach the airport, Hyderabad topped followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. The minimum and maximum time to reach RGIA from Nampally was recorded as 42 minutes and 68 minutes respectively. Except for a few bottlenecks in Lakdikapul, Masab Tank and Sarojini Devi Hospital, the road connectivity from Nampally to RGIA qualified as good in the study.
In the category of reliability of public transport to reach the airport, Hyderabad stood second as it did not have any rail or Metro Rail connectivity. Mumbai edged out Hyderabad by 0.01 per cent. The study also said in Mumbai, the distance from the airport to the city centre was only 20 km whereas at Hyderabad it was 36 km from Nampally. Except for Hyderabad and Bengaluru, passengers in other metros had less than 22 km to reach the airport from their city centres. In another category that assessed accessibility and speed in reaching from 5km, 10km, 15km, 20km and above radius, Hyderabad stood at second place after Chennai with an average of 55.43 minutes if travelling by car.
In the category, averaging the time taken to reach the airport by bus, Hyderabad got first place with 86.8 minutes followed by Mumbai (93.4 min), Chennai (94.3 min), New Delhi (117.4 min), Kolkata (129.1 min) and Bengaluru (131.3 min). When compared to the airports in metro cities, Hyderabad stood in first place in all aspects and third when compared to 61 non-metro airports.
