'Smart tech weds sustainability ideas at KIA's new green terminal

A 'cool' idea

A promotional video for the second terminal at the Kempegowda International Airport opens with the word ‘reimagined’.

On purely aesthetic terms, T2, which the airport operators are pitching as a biodiversity hotspot, is a departure from the sprawl-swank themes of many modern airports.

Central to this coming together of the sensorial and the sustainable is flora sourced from multiple ecological habitats and showcased on green walls, forest belt passages, and bronze bells suspended from the ceiling.

The plants on the hanging bells were a big draw when the new facility was thrown open for a media walkthrough on Saturday.

Hari Marar, CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), said a smart auto irrigation system was used to maintain over six lakh plants in the terminal.

The suspended bells come with their own in-built systems to water the plants.

Watch | A look at Bengaluru's new airport terminal

“All this is controlled using sensors through an app developed indigenously,” he said.

T2 features 180 rare, endangered plant species, 620 endemic plants, 7,700 transplanted trees, 150 palm species, 96 lotus species and 100 varieties of lilies.

BIAL expected the garden around T2 to maintain a microclimate two to three degrees lower than its surroundings.

Prasanna Murthy, head of landscaping at the airport, said plants were collected from different agroclimatic zones and acclimatised to Bengaluru.

They were grown in inert media (without soil) and the technology-facilitated control on nutrients supply, moisture and recirculation of water.