AAI to invest Rs 1808 Crore expanding Chennai airport

By TBM Staff | Chennai

The development plans of Chennai Airport got the clearance of the Public Investment Board (PIB) today. It will now have to be approved by the Government (CCEA approval). The work is expected to begin by September 2008. Last year in April, the Government decided that the Chennai Airport would be developed by following international standards by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The AAI has developed a master plan and design of terminals through Global Architectural Design Competition. An Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) has approved the development plans. The plans focus on the enhancement of runway capacity, apron capacity and terminal building capacity.

The Tamil Nadu government has handed over about 130 acres of land to the AAI for the development of the secondary runway. Land has also been made available by the defence authorities. In a meeting chaired by the Defence Minister, held on July 24, 2008, it was decided to hand over 21 acres of defence land to the AAI for the expansion of the airport. The Expert Committee on Infrastructural Development is expected to give the environmental clearance to the expansion project shortly.

The existing international terminal at the Chennai Airport has a capacity of three million passengers and existing domestic terminal has a capacity of six million passengers. Additional capacity of four million is being added to the international terminal to enhance its capacity to seven million passengers. A new domestic terminal is being built with capacity of ten million in addition to the existing domestic terminal, to augment the capacity of the domestic terminal to 16 million. The construction and development work is expected to be complete by October 2010. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 1808.10 crore of which approximately Rs 1077.16 crores will be required for the new domestic terminal building and for the modernisation/extension of the international terminal and the face lifting of the existing international and domestic terminals. 80 per cent of the project will be funded through internal resources of the AAI and 20 per cent through commercial borrowings. No User Development Fee (UDF) or budgetary support is envisaged for this project.

The upgraded international terminal building, which will be able cater to seven million passengers a year, will have a peak hour capacity of about 4450 passengers, 109 check in counters, 35 immigration counters for departure and 39 for arrival, eight customs counters for departure and 26 for arrival, eight conveyor belts and eight aerobridges. This terminal is expected to be saturated in 2017-2018. The domestic passenger terminals which will be able to cater to 16 million passengers annually will have a peak hour capacity of about 5360 passengers, 99 check in counters, ten conveyor belts, nine aerobridges and is expected to be saturated by 2012-2013.

The pre-engineering and pre-qualification of the project have been completed. As per present estimates, work is expected to commence in September, 2008. Construction of runway, taxiway, parking bays is expected to be complete in 20 months and the terminal buildings in September 2010. Thus, the runway, taxiway, parking bays scheduled to be completed by April, 2010 and the terminal buildings by October, 2010.

Source : TravelBizMonitor.com