TIRUCHY: The construction of the new terminal at the international airport, which has already overshot its original deadline by over 18 months, is likely to be delayed further in completion as officials peg the latest target time at September this year.
"We have completed about 90% of the construction but we need some more time to finish the interiors. We currently expect the works to be completed by September. We have taken the necessary measures to ensure completion of all the works by this deadline," a senior airport official said. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) commenced the Rs 951-crore project for the new terminal in February 2019.
Issues brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, made the project to overshoot its original deadline of October 2021 and the subsequent deadline of December 2022, airport authorities said. The airport advisory committee meeting held in January this year then announced that the terminal works would be completed by June before senior officials clarified that it wouldn’t be the case anymore.
Sources said that the airport management would hold an assessment meeting with the terminal construction team in the coming days. "We would ask them to speed up the works and ensure completion of the project at the earliest," a source said. Meanwhile, travel and tour operators said that the airport should clarify on the options in hand for speeding up the works.
"There is no point in blaming the pandemic for the delay. If the pandemic was a factor, why did they announce in January that the works would get completed by June? We want the authorities to speed up the works as we are sure the new infrastructure would attract more airlines to Tiruchy. We also want the AAI and the state government to make efforts to speed up land acquisition for runway expansion," said N Ramesh, a city-based tour operator.