Airports have always been a mode of transit for passengers and cargo. In older times the airports were just meant for moving passengers from one place to another. Previously, people have been using airports just for check-in and check-out purposes. But with the advent of Aerotropolis concept, there has been a dramatic change in the way people looked upon airports. The airports now are treated as a means for boosting the socio-economic developments of a city. They are also looked upon as a modern business hub that has an array of services which include shopping malls, entertainment hubs, food and beverage outlets, retail outlets etc. Other than these, the Aerotropolis also is supposed to have a residential housing complex, which allows the people a centralised stay. The world so far has seen many great Aerotropolis cities. They include the airport cities of Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. India also has got hold of one such aero-city concept and the country has come up with its very first Aerotropolis in the state of West Bengal.
It was in the year 2015, that India got its first airport city. Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL) is a company that is formed to develop Aerotropolis cities in India. The company is headed by some Board of Directors and Mr. Partha Ghosh is one among them who has taken the Bengal Aerotropolis project to its expected destinations.
BAPL, in conjunction with Singapore’s Changi Airports International, planned the developments of Bengal Aerotropolis Project. BAPL indeed took technical knowhow from this company that assisted it in formations and developments of India’s so called first Aerotropolis city. This Singapore based firm had much prior experience in developing similar projects around many cities of the world. While the project took its very first step towards implementations, Mr. Partha Ghosh decided to use the resources of old Andal airport and transformed it into a newly renovated one, thus keeping the costs at bay.
The Bengal Aerotropolis project had plans to develop a fully operational airport city in Durgapur. As a part of the project it also had structured a huge residential complex, which was supposed to roll out HIG, MIG and HIG plots that could accommodate all classes of people. The place enjoys all the amenities that are expected from an Aerotropolis. In its very close proximity, it has got schools, colleges, deemed universities, hospitals, shopping malls, entertainment hubs, and Information Technology hubs. All of these portray this as a perfect Aerotropolis.