After a prolonged delay, work on an additional baggage ramp and a travelator may soon begin at the Chennai airport.
The travelator — a moving walkway to transport people between the two new terminals — was earlier part of the Rs. 2000-crore Chennai airport expansion project.
But, work was been postponed due to cost escalation. “Initially, we thought the private player, who was to have taken over the airport by March 2014, would construct these two facilities. Since the privatisation process is on hold, we plan to begin work soon,” an official of Airports Authority of India (AAI) in New Delhi said.
The ramp inside the airport, carrying vehicles from the entrance of the airport to the new terminals, was constructed with Y-shaped pillars, instead of the conventional vertical ones, only to create a travelator, another official said.
Rs. 10- crore rampThe additional baggage ramp — that transports baggage between the aircraft and terminal — for the new international terminal is likely to cost Rs. 10 crore.
“A second ramp may be required in the future when aircraft and passenger movement increases,” the AAI official in New Delhi said.
The ramp was not built during the construction of the terminals owing to lack of land, sources said.
Officials may now figure out a way to take it up again.
At present, the new international terminal makes do with just one baggage ramp since it handles only departure operations; the arrivals are handled by the old international terminal.
But when the arrivals operations are also opened in the new terminal, congestion and delay are a possibility.
