In the past few months, shell-shocked air travellers emerging from Mumbai's domestic ­terminal 1B could have been forgiven for thinking they had somehow landed in ­Singapore.

Outside the shiny, newly refurbished terminal building was a spacious waiting area with an architect­designed pick-up point - all a far cry from the previous chaos of hotel and taxi touts fighting for space with jostling ­relatives and the odd stray hound.The only thing that gave the scene away as Mumbai was the incessant honking of horns.

• Bumpy ride for India airport projects

The revitalised terminal was the first sign that the airport's new regime, led by GV Sanjay Reddy, the managing director of the Mumbai International Airport, was beginning to have an impact.

But Mr Reddy, whose group GVK is the leader of the consortium upgrading Mumbai's airport, still has a huge amount of work to do.

• Mumbai skies set for congestion crisis

As part of efforts to increase its original capacity more than fourfold, from 8.6m passengers to 40m by 2012, the group has hired a contractor to relocate 450,000 slum-dwellers who live on airport land, some just a football-kick away from parts of the tarmac.

He must complete refurbishment of the other domestic terminal, 1A, and will eventually have to knock down the international terminal to build a new one.

• Helicopter shuttle to beat India's traffic

And all of this while the airport is in full operation, with 32 flights an hour set to rise to 45 if government efforts to upgrade air traffic control and other equipment go ahead as planned.