India's Airport Gets a Social Innovation Makeover

Green building and social innovation techniques are becoming worldwide trends and India's new airports are no exception. Terminal 3 at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport is the world's first and largest terminal building to win green building's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification. This badge is earned by buildings meeting standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Indian Green Building Council.

The Indira Gandhi airport expansion program will increase its capacity to handle 100 million passengers by 2030 and since flying is the most carbon-intensive form of transportation, generally airports are not considered great for the environment. Therefore, new airports that are built need to be as green as possible incorporating social innovation. So, New Delhi's Terminal 3 green provisions are a bench mark which include ecological ideas such as strong day lighting; use of construction materials with recycled content; recycling of construction waste; use of alternative vehicles such as battery operated transport, which are supported by electric charging stations; water management through rainwater harvesting; on-site, reverse-osmosis treatment for drinking water; on-site wastewater treatment and reuse for toilet flushing; and a whole host of other economical processes.

According to the Airports Authority of India, the country's domestic and international air traffic was approximately 38 million passengers from 1999 to 2000. While, during 2010-2011 it saw more than 143 million people fly; the passengers more than tripling in a single decade. In the U.S. if traffic grows at 3 to 4 percent a year, airports struggle because it's difficult to deliver the services to meet those growth levels. In India, traffic was growing at 15 to 25 percent annually, and the government had to do something, which was to get the private sector involved and focus on the airports with the most traffic: Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru (Bangalore), Hyderabad, and Kochi. These airports are now operated through public-private partnerships and have seen the most dramatic social innovation changes.

New Delhi's Terminal 3, state-of-the-art complex; was built at a rapid pace in record time, driven by penalties if it wasn't completed ahead of the Delhi-hosted 2010 Commonwealth Games. At 5.4 million square feet, Delhi's Terminal 3 is now among the largest buildings in the world. The new runway and two terminals, including Terminal 3, were all built in three years: 37 months, start to finish; a crazy speed rarely seen before in the world. I hope this award winning social innovation terminal will stand the test of time and that the finished building will not have been compromised by the bid to see it finished so quickly.

Photo Credit: Indira Gandhi International Airport website