In a move that will reduce the fuel consumption of aircraft and airside congestion at Chennai airport, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has planned a massive project to build 11 rapid exit taxiways at an estimated cost of ₹400 crore.
Officials of AAI said these rapid exit taxiways (which will allow an aircraft to swiftly exit the runway) will significantly decrease the runway occupancy time of an aircraft and bring down the congestion at airport.
“It will help an arriving aircraft to quickly exit the runway with lesser fuel consumption and we can handle more aircraft in future. We are planning to construct eight such rapid exit taxiways linking the main runway and three with the secondary runway. The tenders for this project will be floated shortly. Since this is a functional airport, there will be challenges in carrying out the project, but we are hoping to finish work in about 2-3 years,” an official said.
At present, the airport’s handling capacity is 36 movements an hour and when this project ends, it will increase to 45 movements an hour, officials said. “The passenger traffic and the aircraft movement have been rising year on year and investing in such infrastructure is crucial for the near future. When this project is over, it will help us in managing air traffic congestion for at least quite a few years,” another official said.
Already, as part of the phase II modernisation project work executed at a cost of ₹2,467 crore, a few rapid exit taxiways are being built.
Meanwhile, as part of the modernisation work, the demolition of the old international terminal is getting closer to completion. Once this is complete, AAI will begin building the remaining part of the new integrated terminal (which is currently handling international flight operations).
