£2bn Delhi airport terminal signals a new India, says PM

India's biggest public building opens in time for Commonwealth Games, but some have questioned the expense

India's biggest public building, a £2bn terminal at Indira Gandhi international airport in Delhi, opened at the weekend after seven days of religious ceremonies involving 300 priests, and last-minute polishing of its 500,000 square metres of granite floors.

The steel and glass terminal is expected to handle 34 million passengers a year and will see its first arrival – a non-stop Air India flight from New York – in 10 days' time. It is bigger than Terminal Four in Madrid and T5 at Heathrow, but smaller than the terminal in Beijing opened to welcome visitors to the 2008 Olympics.

The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said at the inauguration: "An airport is often the first introduction to a country. A good airport will signal a new India, committed to joining the ranks of modern industrialised nations".

Local authorities are hoping to finish several ambitious construction projects before the Commonwealth Games, due in Delhi in October. The games are seen as an opportunity to demonstrate India's new economic and political international weight. Other projects include stadiums, more metro lines, highways, bridges and a number of underpasses.

In order to give the terminal's vast spaces local flavour, officials commissioned a vast Buddha head and a series of giant hands in poses drawn from Indian classical dance.

The Delhi Bazaar area is supposed to reproduce the experience of shopping at a traditional Indian market – presumably without the spit stains, cacophony of hooting traffic and jostling crowds.

The terminal was also designed to counter the extremes of Delhi's climate. "The roof is angled in such a way that will only allow northern light to come in," said Clare Brenner, the project's British architect.

The nine-level terminal is equipped with the largest car park in India, accommodating 4,300 cars, and its own metro line. There are more than four miles of conveyor belts, and bridges to accommodate the giant double-decker Airbus A380 planes.

Some have questioned the need for such expense when only a tiny fraction of India's 1.2bn population has ever flown and two-thirds do not have access to a toilet. The civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, said the terminal was "not just a building, it's a statement".