By September 2020, new integrated terminal at Chennai airport to be ready
Posted on: 14/Sep/2019 11:40:30 AM
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A new integrated terminal in the space between the domestic and international terminal at the Chennai airport!! Sounds great isn’t it!!
It is now revealed that by September 2020 the above mentioned new terminal would be completed by the AAI or Airport Authority of India. Information collected is this new terminal would be used partly for domestic and for international passengers.
Now, around 21% of the work is finished and this was as per a senior official belonging to AAI. He was happy that the work has been going on at good speeds to meet the September deadline. In 2 phases, the terminal work is carried out. In phase-1, building would be completed and international arrival would be shifted to the new building. Later, old building would be pulled down for rebuilding.
On Thursday, 12th September 2019, Mr. Anuj Agarwal, chairman of AAI, held a review meeting to assess the progress. In the month of July in 2018, work on the integrated building started at the Kamaraj domestic terminal is known. For handling both domestic as well as international flights simultaneously, the new building is being designed. It is from the old building the international arrivals are presently operated and this old building would be pulled down. New building that is now constructed would be linked to integrated building. By this, the terminal capacity would be increased to30 million passengers in a year.
It is brought out that AAI wants to speed up the work as the airport is expected to get saturated by 2022. It must be noted that the state government hasn’t identified land for the second airport till now. An official of AAI spoke about how the new building when it gets ready would handle the international arrivals and how the present building would be pulled down. He added that under Rs 2000 crore project, the new international arrival terminal would be ready by 2022.
In the year 2013 in the first phase, the domestic and international terminal were commissioned is known. The official explained that the challenge was to carry out construction when there were two terminals on either side of the plot where the passengers were handled. Point is new terminal cannot be built like Greenfield airport where the work was done on an open land. It is important to mention that the authorities at Chennai airport must make sure that flight operations as well as passenger movement on the city side doesn’t get affected.
