ATC Control Towers

As I rode back into T3 at Delhi airport, I noticed that they are still working on building the new control tower. Ever since the iconoclastic tower at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport

was made famous by its younger cousin at Singapore's Changi Airport,

a number of airports have been racing to build these new age towers that are situated outside the airport complex. Here is the new tower at Mumbai

and the one they have been building for years at Delhi.

In the old days, the ATC was no more than a glass cabin atop the terminal building and as I drove past the new tower in Delhi, I couldn't help wonder if these new phallic designs were no more than an ego boosters for the politicians that commissioned them; another manifestation of 'mine is bigger than yours', if you will.

A little more thought though, and one has to give the designers credit for coming up with an elegant solution to a modern problem. When airports were built, they were situated way outside the city with nothing more than open fields all around. The ATC glass house atop the terminal building had an unobstructed view of the surrounding plains all the way to the horizon to see the approaching planes coming in. With cities growing at the frenetic pace we have been witnessing for the last couple of decades, new buildings sprouted up near the airports and ATC clearly needed something taller to see over to the horizon.

So the next time you land safely at an airport in a crowded, congested city, you might want to thank the guys slaving away at a giant phallus nearby.