Content area
Full Text
Report from Indo-Asian News Service brought to you by HT Syndication.
Hyderabad, March 28 -- It was witness to the evolution of this city from the capital of a princely state to a part of independent India and its metamorphosis to a booming IT hub. Now, the 76-year-old Begumpet airport has fallen silent with a new airport coming up.
The Begumpet area, located in the heart of the city, used to reverberate with the sound of 250 aircraft every day. Today, its paint-peeling terminal building that used to be abuzz with activity is deserted.
A few youngsters were seen playing cricket in the portico of the terminal building that till recently would be flocked by hundreds of passengers round the clock.
Curtains were drawn on the Begumpet airport with the shifting of operations to Shamshabad, 30 km from the city. When a Thai Airlines flight took off for Bangkok in the early hours of Sunday from Begumpet, a glorious chapter of civil aviation in this historic city came to an end.
The aerobridges were rolled back, Air Traffic Controllers switched...