CHENNAI: The AAI has been given the nod by the government to go ahead with development plans, but it remains to be seen what the new terminals will be named.
“Over the last few years we have not been decided about whether to go ahead and develop or pull in a private player. Now the government has asked us to go ahead with the development plans. So there is a planning team that will undertake the work that needs to be done immediately,” said Member (Planning) S Raheja. This will increase the capacity of the airport from 14 million passengers per year to 23 million passengers.
With the development of the terminals to go ahead, the question again arises over whether the soon to be rebuilt terminals will retain the names of the former Chief Ministers of TN.
It is to be noted that AAI had redesignated the name of the Kamaraj and Anna terminals as T3 and T4 and boards to those effect were erected some time ago.
“As of now, the terminals will be built under the operational name T3 and T4 as per plan. The naming issue may be taken up when the construction is actually done,” said Airport Director Captain Deepak Shastri.
When the modernised terminals were set to be inaugurated in 2013, unions protested the move to name them T1 and T2 instead of ‘shifting’ the names of Anna and Kamaraj along with the operations. In fact, when a request made by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to name the new terminal after MGR was overlooked, she made a strong statement by boycotting the inauguration - after formally receiving the the then Vice President Hamid Ansari.
“The pictures and statue of both great leaders are still inside the old terminals and they will have to be transferred to the new building. There is no question of not naming it after them. We hope that it is built better than the last construction they undertook where glass and ceiling panels kept falling,” said AAI Employees Union chief L George.