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Sabya's trip report:

 
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sabya99
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Joined: 19 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:54 pm    Post subject: Sabya's trip report: Reply with quote

From New Jersey to South Kolkata by AI 101/102.

This trip report was posted earlier in skyscrapercity forum (July 2011).

Departure from JFK airport: The view of huge B777-300 ER on the JFK apron was very exciting. Our aircraft was full with passengers from all over India. Upon entry Capt Tathagatha Das greeted us and announced there will be delay in take off. Once the aircraft was pushed back from apron area we were in the Taxiway marked by green centerline lights. There were many aircrafts ahead of us as we were heading for runway 22R-04L. After sometime the green centerline became green/orange center line . A sign appeared-- approaching 22R-04L, runway centerline with broken arrows. I saw a large wide body aircraft just taking off ahead of us. This was the blastpad of the runway; Capt. pushed the engine in full thrust. We rolled over to main runway with orange centerline lights. Air India B777 took off to the sky over Jamaica Bay. Eventually our flight path took us to north Atlantic over Greenland. Although AI102 was known to be a transpolar flight we didn’t touch Arctic circle. This semicircular path took us from Greenland to Helsinki , Moscow, Kursk then to Tajikistan in central Asia. AI in flight service was generally good and they took special care of elderly pax. Both vegi and nonvegi foods were better than some other air lines. We entered Afganistan near Majar e Sarif. One could see snow capped peaks of Hindukush mountain. This was geologically the beginning of Indian subcontinent. Then we entered Pakistan south of Kabul, over to Kahuta, Faisalabad then to Amritsar , at last to New Delhi.
Delhi’s shining new terminal 3 pride of the nation : T3 is so huge one could see it from far away while aircraft approaches the new runway for landing. We parked in a green color coded gate. A ground escort guided us to a transfer point . We had to undergo further security check and boarding pass authentication. But it was very orderly. Our next leg of journey was Kolkata flight almost half a mile away from gate 8A. We had about 3 hr time so we spent some time in the duty free shopping area. Central point was a huge liquor store and the store was fairly crowded. Nearby there were many clothing stores, jewelry / watch stores, chocolate stores , but I could find very few customers in these stores. The entire duty free shop area was nicely organized and reminded our Menlo mall complex.
Missing items of Delhi’s new T3: As I was entering in the terminal, I was searching for a picture of Mrs. Gandhi. After all she is the name sake of this airport and mightiest PM of India .perhaps DIAL have already installed Mrs. Gandhi’s picture in several locations of the airport by now.
I would also like to have a statue of Nataraj and Lord Ganesh in the terminal. Nataraj symbolizes rhythmic and simple harmonic motion and travel. While Lord Ganesh symbolizes Indian culture in the west. Inclusion of these two icons will make this terminal a true Indian heritage. I hope someday DIAL will install these statues!
I would also like to see a dedicated shopping arcade for India’s glorious cottage industries. Tourists are very eager for these items and my friends in New Jersey already requested me for such items.
Heading to Kolkata on a Airbus 320 : Just at 8.00 PM we rolled out for runway 28 ( Cat-1 ). I noticed DEL also have green center line lighted taxiway leading to runway 28. We took off at ease and dinner was served. But quality of food was not as good as JFK-DEL sector. It was dark all around even lights from city of Kolkata were not visible. As the aircraft started to take D-loop turns entire salt lake area and east Kolkata wet lands became clear to me. The wetland area is vast almost as large as Jamaica bay of New York.
Soon aircraft positioned itself on the glide path. I could see VIP road under my feet , even Ambys are clearly visible. A few highrise later we noticed the double barrel south perimeter road in the southern side of the airfield. It was raining hard, much of air field dark and gloomy. Soon the aircraft landed from south side on the secondary runway. This runway did not have center line lights but had high intensity runway edge lights (HIEL ) and also did not have ILS beam from north side. Previously I have landed from south side on the main runway at night time. But I was somewhat surprised to see a smooth night time landing on secondary runway and in no time we left secondary runway by alpha taxiway and heading for bay 42.
Perhaps a Tracon radar for terminal approach control was used for such landing. It seems CCU secondary runway ( 19R-01L) has become an all weather instrument. I felt very proud of it.
Change ( parivartan !) at hand in the terminal: We arrived international terminal in a pickup bus. I was surprised to see this ancient building efficiently cooled. I would say efficiency of cooling was far better than Delhi’s brand new T3. Our luggage arrived before we arrived in the arrival area! For first time in my life, Immigration inspectors spoke to me nicely. They smiled at me; asked me how long I would stay in India, how many years I have been to USA; does our children speak Bangla etc etc !
I thought it is all a part of a change for better ( paribartan )!!
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing a nice trip report, Sabyasachi! What sets your report different from most others is that your report is full of very interesting observations, and small points that made it an engrossing read. You have made a nice point about Mrs. Indira Gandhi's portrait or statue not being anywhere at DEL. I also like your detailed description of the runways and the lights, at three airports. This points to a very keen observer in you! Your description of the changes at CCU: the environs, and the people, is interesting - I have only experienced international travel from DEL and BOM, at various points in time. Thanks once again for writing a nice report, and sharing it with us.
Cheers, Sumantra.


Last edited by sumantra on Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing, perhaps the CCU terminal was cooler than DEL because of the rain around? Smile
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jasepl
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing!

Interesting that there's no portrait or anything of Mrs Gandhi... odd indeed!

As for Natraj or Ganesha, my opinion is that they shouldn't be there. Palam is an Indian airport, not a Hindu one!
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
Thanks for sharing a nice trip report, Sabyasachi! What sets your report different from most others is that your report is full of very interesting observations, and small points that made it an engrossing read. You have made a nice point about Mrs. Indira Gandhi's portrait or statue not being anywhere at DEL. I also like your detailed description of the runways and the lights, at three airports. This points to a very keen observer in you! Your description of the changes at CCU: the environs, and the people, is interesting - I have only experienced international travel from DEL and BOM, at various points in time. Thanks once again for writing a nice report, and sharing it with us.
Cheers, Sumantra.


Sumantra, we visit India every two years. As a result subtle changes caught our attention. I am glad to see that you liked it.
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jasepl wrote:
Thanks for sharing!

Interesting that there's no portrait or anything of Mrs Gandhi... odd indeed!

As for Natraj or Ganesha, my opinion is that they shouldn't be there. Palam is an Indian airport, not a Hindu one!


Jesepl, I don’t want to bring the issue of Hindu vs. Indian airport which is very controversial. I wanted to make a cultural point out of it. But absence of Indira Gandhi was just unacceptable! Very Happy
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spiderguy252 wrote:
Thanks for sharing, perhaps the CCU terminal was cooler than DEL because of the rain around? Smile


Perhaps CCU terminal was much smaller and easier to cool. Air temperature on the apron area was not that cool because of rain. It was early July, how cool it should be. Very Happy
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jasepl
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sabya99 wrote:
Jesepl, I don’t want to bring the issue of Hindu vs. Indian airport which is very controversial. I wanted to make a cultural point out of it. But absence of Indira Gandhi was just unacceptable! Very Happy


Oh no controversy, just preference.

But yeah, Indira Gandhi's absence is bizarre. Maybe they just forgot!
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PAL@YWG
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very nice TR, Sabya! Crisp and detailed where you are inquisitive (runways lights for example).
I always wanted to know first hand, how is the Intl- transfer experience for CCU bound passengers at DEL. Now I know.

On the issue of Indira Gandhi's bust at IGIA, will there be any airport left to be named after Dr. Manmohan Singh (or any other illustrious Indian for that matter) when someone decides that he should have one too Very Happy ?

India needs to build a lot of airports to accomodate all aspiring political leader's desire to inscribe their names!
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PAL@YWG wrote:
Very nice TR, Sabya! Crisp and detailed where you are inquisitive (runways lights for example).
I always wanted to know first hand, how is the Intl- transfer experience for CCU bound passengers at DEL. Now I know.

On the issue of Indira Gandhi's bust at IGIA, will there be any airport left to be named after Dr. Manmohan Singh (or any other illustrious Indian for that matter) when someone decides that he should have one too Very Happy ?

India needs to build a lot of airports to accomodate all aspiring political leader's desire to inscribe their names!

Thank you. Please remember that there was only one mighty Indira Gandhi born in India in last one hundred years.No other politician could match her! Very Happy
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stealthpilot
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing.... I'll be doing my first international transfer at DEL T3 in 2 weeks .....
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stealthpilot wrote:
Thanks for sharing.... I'll be doing my first international transfer at DEL T3 in 2 weeks .....

Thank you for reading. Transhipment via BOM will come up next!
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sabya99 wrote:
Thank you for reading. Transhipment via BOM will come up next!

...eagerly look forward to that!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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