Boris Johnson: my vision of an airport city on Thames (inspired by India)

Mayor has vision of ‘aerotropolis’ with university and 20,000 people
p30 p31 Mayor Boris Johnson - Boris Dinner at East Winter Garden, 43 Bank Street Canary Wharf, E14 5NX - Pics By Martin Pitchley - On Demand Media- Tel: 07951 827 593 Pic: Martin Pitchley
Martin Pitchley
Pippa Crerar28 November 2012

Boris Johnson today set out his vision to build an “aerotropolis” around a new terminal in the Thames Estuary.

A town of about 20,000 people could spring up to the east of London based around a four-runway hub airport. It would have four or five “anchor” developments such as a hospital, university campus, a major business or exhibition centre to create thousands of jobs. A social infrastructure including homes, schools, shops, parks and a transport network would be a key part of the plan.

The Mayor said London had “much to learn” from India on the future of airports. He added that he was “inspired” by his visit to Hyderabad’s two runway airport — a leading example of an “aerotropolis” that is set to double in size over the next five years — on his week-long tour of the country.

The scheme is the idea of American urban design expert Professor John Kasada, who advised the Hyderabad project and is expected to be invited to London by the Mayor to help his submission to the Davies commission on aviation.

Stepping onto the tarmac, Mr Johnson said: “This airport in Hyderabad is very impressive. The Indians are very ambitious but they are very efficient as they use the airport to grow the local economy. They are quite right. We have much to learn.” Later, in a meeting with Indian infrastructure ministers, he said: “I very much admire that vision and I’m thinking along similar lines in London.

“We have an airports capacity crisis. Your vision of an aerotropolis is extremely powerful.”

Mr Johnson received a briefing from airport boss Kiran Kumar Grandhi, who also built the new hi-tech hub airports at Delhi and Istanbul in record time.

Mr Grandhi said: “We want to create the first Indian air city. We’ve got the basic airport infrastructure in place, now we’re trying to do various anchor developments. You need the social infrastructure to make it a living eco-system.”

A private health clinic — offering fly-in, fly-out operations — a Canadian business school campus, exhibition and convention centre and maintenance business are already under way on the 1.2 million square foot site, which serves a city of seven million. Mr Johnson also picked up tips on funding the project — the Mayor has said his Thames Estuary idea could be funded entirely by the private sector.

But Hyderabad airport, which was built in 31 months and serves 12 million passengers a year, was funded 30 per cent by equity, 40 per cent by debt, (four fifths of which was domestic and the rest from Gulf states) and the remainder from government and state grants.

Mr Johnson’s “aerotropolis” plan is certain to meet criticism from green campaigners opposed to aviation expansion, residents in the Estuary and bird protection groups.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in