After months of delay, the new terminals of the Chennai airport might finally be inaugurated by the end of the month.
However, it will be Vice-President Hamid Ansari and not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who will be present at the function.
Airport Director H.S. Suresh said that he had been informed the that ministry of civil aviation sent a letter to the Vice-President’s office on Friday seeking his approval to inaugurate the terminals on January 31. Once the confirmation from his office is received, which is likely to happen by Monday, the new terminals may see the light of the day. However, it might be at least a month before the new domestic and international terminals become operational as decisions regarding commercial establishments are yet to be made, officials said.
Airport authorities had initially been very keen that the Prime Minister inaugurate the terminals. “We heard that PM and President are quite busy and hence ,they may not be able to make it to Chennai. Thus, the decision to approach the Vice-President was made,” said Mr. Suresh.
The unavailability of Prime Minister owing to his busy schedule had often been cited by officials as one of the reasons for the delay in inauguration. Another reason was the civil aviation ministry’s decision to wait till the inline baggage screening systems were installed at the terminals.
However, they have not been ordered. Instead, four standalone machines from the old domestic terminal and four inline screening systems from the old international terminal would be moved to the new ones. “We didn’t get the clearance to order eight inline baggage screening systems; hence we have decided to do away with it,” Mr. Suresh added.
Doing away with the orders for the new inline screening system and using just the outdate old inline screen system from the old international airport clearly shows that AAI and its authorities are brainchild of the 3rd world attitude. The whole begining of modernising of the Chennai airport was founded on the grounds of bringing the 1st world architectural excellence and comfort to our air travelers to and from Chennai. What difference would it make if we are going about discarding every single thing right from our multi-level carpark to modern airport machineries which will decrease the passengers turn around time and increase their comfort level. To the AAI officials I have one thing to say: Air Travel is not the same as travelling on the roof top luggage rack of a country bus where the destination is the only important consideration but not the comfort. Please order adequate number of new inline scanning devices and give no excuses. Tamilnadu isn't in congo but is in india too.
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