CHENNAI: Airport Authority of India (AAI) has requested TN government to acquire 306 acres to build an international terminal and a cargo terminal on the other side of the Adyar river for further expansion of Chennai Airport to serve 55 million passengers per annum (MPPA), says Chennai Airport Director Dr Sharad Kumar. A letter had been written to the government to acquire the land, most of which was vacant, he said.
RITES and Alexandra Richter ARC Consulting are conducting a feasibility study, likely to be completed in six months. The move means the existing cargo terminal in Meenambakkam will be shifted to the other side of Adyar. Kumar said the existing cargo infrastructure would be modified for expanding the apron bays. The airport needs more apron bays for aircraft to handle the projected 55 MPPA.
Currently, Chennai Airport, one of India’s largest, functions on only 1,317 acres of land, the smallest compared with other major airports. The expansion also comes in the wake of the government acquiring land for the city’s second greenfield airport in Parandur, expected to serve 10 crore passengers.
Meanwhile, work on stage-1 of the second phase of Chennai Airport modernisation is expected to be completed by December 2022. Chennai Airport Director said trial run of the stage-1 of the phase-II modernisation (new integrated air terminal) of the airport would begin mid-October. Based on feedback, it would be put into operation. Dry run for the new terminal was being taken up following queries from passengers, Kumar said.
The airport had initially thought of having the dry run by catering to weekly flights. “We are now planning to have an airline with flights once or twice a week to shift it to the new terminal. We will have a full fledged dry run. It will have customs and immigration counters, besides delivery and conveyor belts. Once we are sure of its functioning, we will open stage-1 of the terminal.”
The second phase of the airport’s modernisation is likely to be completed by December 2024 and it will enhance its capacity to serve 35 MPPA from 22 MPPA now. Once the second phase of modernisation is completed, terminal 2 and terminal 3 of the airport will be used for international flights, while terminal 1 and terminal 4 will be used for domestic flights.
The stage-1 of modernisation of Chennai Airport is expected to help passengers greatly as they will no longer need to walk about half a kilometre from the domestic terminal to the international one and vice versa.