Designed to handle 40 million passengers a year, the new Terminal 2 at Mumbai International Airport is effectively built on top of the old building. This makes it part of the world’s largest constrained airport development programme.

Arup led the entire Operational Readiness Activation and Transition (ORAT) process, transforming the building from a construction site to a fully operational environment.

Ensuring operational readiness

Stringent project governance was needed to make sure everything ran smoothly for the ten million passengers using the new facility each year. This ensured effective, informed decision-making when critical risks and issues escalated.

Everybody and everything had to be primed for transition. We set up a project management office to manage ORAT process, policies and procedures and gained the support of stakeholders for an integrated plan to make the new terminal operational.

Facility training and familiarisation protocols ensured all staff understood their individual responsibilities, with operational trials ensuring that the people, processes, facilities and systems were ready to go live.

Once all critical facilities and systems had been tested and worked as planned, we were ready for transition. Ensuring everything moved to the new terminal on time meant operational cutover went ahead seamlessly for the more than 40 airlines using the terminal.

The success of the project was based on an Arup team of specialist global consultants whose expertise enabled a smooth transition even in a constrained environment. With broad understanding and experience, the team was able to recommend future operational improvements so that Mumbai Terminal 2 could continue to deliver the passenger experience needed for 40 million travellers a year.

Check in desks inside Mumbai Terminal 2