CHENNAI : In order to meet the shortage of parking space for aircraft at the Chennai Airport, and to deal with a projected footfall of 35 million passengers, the Airports Authority of India is seeking consultants, who can study the feasibility of utilising the remote apron bays located between the Main Runway and Secondary Runway by building tunnels and linking them to the proposed satellite terminal.
The airport requires a total of 66 apron bays --when aircraft are parked, loaded and unloaded -- to deal with the increase in passenger footfall following the second phase of airport expansion. Now, there are only 34 apron bays in front of the terminal building, which will be converted into Multiple Apron Ramp System (MARS) to maximise the parking space. This will increase the count of bays to 41.
Since there is no more land available there for expansion, Airports Authority of India has identified remote bays, which were used to park smaller aircraft between the main and secondary runway, to meet the shortfall of 25 bays. The hitch, however, is accessibility. Hence, the AAI is planning to build an underground tunnel for easy access to these remote bays.
AAI is also considering the use of electrically operated vehicles or automated people movers for transportation of passengers and cargo from the New Integrated Terminal Building (NITB), which is under construction, to remote Apron bays. The underground tunnel will connect the assembly hall in the basement of the NITB with a central connecting passage between two remote gate piers. The passengers will move from basement level to the gates using escalators, lifts or staircases.
The assembly hall in the basement of NITB will be accessible from Terminal-4, which is being converted into a domestic terminal. For passengers from Terminal-1 (the existing domestic terminal), underground connectivity, below vehicular lane, is being explored. The central connectivity passage will have a footprint of 14000 sqm (approx.) at basement, ground and departure or arrival gate levels.