The boundary wall of Hisar Airport in Haryana, India.
Photographer: Elke Scholiers/BloombergEmpty Airports and Half-Finished Highways Plague India After Boom
Dozens of India’s big ticket infrastructure projects have underperformed, echoing China’s problems of the past.
When Indian officials inaugurated a new airport in the small city of Hisar, the ambitions were grand. With planned capacity for a couple million passengers, the local government touted its benefits as an alternative to the much busier terminals serving nearby New Delhi.
But several years after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Hisar’s airport is still barely functional. The arrival and departure halls are mostly empty, and stray dogs lounge on the runway. Though the airport hosts military jets and sporadic planes ferrying politicians, only a handful of subsidized commercial flights have lifted off from Hisar since 2021.