Incredible India
Same old India. And India is dreaming to be like China …
**Mumbai, February 4: **Hundreds of foreign tourists and business travellers arrived to filthy lounges and stinking toilets at the airport in India’s financial capital on Friday, denting the country’s image of a growing economic power.
](http://www.sulekha.com/AdNetwork/) Passengers walked through strewn coffee cups and plastic food packets as airport workers, fearing job losses, took a strike protesting plans to privatise the country’s top two airports into a third day.
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“We hear about the Indian economy, but this is such a shame. The airport is so dirty,” said Asmar Mohaghi, who arrived at the Mumbai airport from Tehran for a business summit.
“I have been around the world, but this is really bad. The baggage section, the toilets … it’s shocking.”
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India is revamping Mumbai and New Delhi airports as part of its efforts to upgrade decrepit infrastructure to international standards capable of keeping pace with a booming economy.
But the move has angered some 23,000 airport workers, who have gone on an indefinite strike to protest private firms taking over the running of the shabby, run-down airports.
The workers may worry about job losses but among India’s growing band of air travellers there is little support for the strike as people show a hunger for modern facilities.
For foreigners, analysts say, the strike casts doubt on a growing impression that India is finally emerging from its decades of Soviet-style economy.
Congested waiting areas, a lack of comfortable seating, slow baggage handling and unreliable power supplies make travel a misery for India’s fast expanding middle-class who increasingly take to the air for long-distance journeys.
Same old India
At the Mumbai airport, passengers were helped on their way by police and airline workers as strikers sat outside the terminal in small groups holding red flags.
“Nothing has changed in India. It’s the same strikes and unionism and stop work,” said Sain Mason, a British traveller who visits Mumbai regularly. “This is not taken to kindly by investors and this image can hurt India.”
Analysts say such sentiment could be that of any prospective foreign investor.
“Privatisation should have been done a long time ago. There will be short-term setback in India’s image, but this is a price that has to be paid,” said Subir Gokarn, chief economist with rating agency Crisil.
Analysts say fence-sitting investors mulling projects in India would be discouraged by the showdown.
The Communists, who provide vital support to the Central coalition in Parliament, are also against the move to privatise airports as they want the modernisation to be led by the state so that job losses are kept to the minimum, if not eliminated altogether.
“If you are showing the example of a hi-tech Chinese airport then also show stories of their revolution and struggle,” said Dipankar Mukherjee, a leftist lawmaker, referring to New Delhi’s attempts to catch up with China and transform cities like Mumbai.
