Raghu's column!: Remembering Begumpet Airport.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Remembering Begumpet Airport.

Until some years ago, while I was working for Praga Tools Limited I used to fly very frequently from and to Hyderabad. With Hyderabad’s Begumpet Airport in our neighborhood, just 2 Kms. from our house, it was very convenient to reach the Airport or reach home from there. I used to take an Auto rickshaw to the Airport and there were Pre-paid Autos for the return journey with minimum fare to our house at Paradise. And there are many instances when one of my sons dropped me at the Airport or picked me up from the Airport on their Motorbike, when I was traveling light.

After leaving Praga Tools Limited my Air travel got reduced to 2 or 3 journeys a year and in the meantime the Begumpet Airport got shifted to Shamshabad, 35 Kms. away from our house. Even these few trips to Shamshabad have become cumbersome with lot of planning and effort required for reaching the New Airport in time. If short of time I take a Taxi to the Airport at high cost or travel by Auto to Keys High School and take a GMR Aero-express Bus from there to reach the Airport. There is a bus every half hour from Keys High School to the Airport and it takes one and half hour to reach the Airport. And to catch this bus I have to start from the house at least three quarters of an hour before. In short it means, it used to take less than 15 minutes for me to reach Begumpet Airport and now it takes me at least 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach Shamshabad Airport.

Tomorrow morning I and my wife have to board the early morning (6:20 AM) Kingfisher flight to Tirupati. Had the flight been from Begumpet we could have started from the house at 5:00 AM but now we have to start at an inconvenient time of 3:30 AM. Well, what was so convenient to me for several years in the past is perhaps now convenient to those leaving close to Shamshabad. But every time I have to travel to Shamshabad Airport I fondly keep remembering the convenience of flying from Begumpet. May be a very fast Train to Shamshabad Airport from Secunderabad Railway Station would make a difference to my discomfort.