Passengers at the domestic and international terminals can soon hope for better maintenance of utilities, Chairman of Airports Authority of India R.K. Srivastava said.
This will be made possible with training of manpower on handling new equipment, which the AAI plans to buy for maintenance, he told The Hindu.
While inspecting the domestic and international terminals of the airport recently, Mr. Srivastava said, “several new technologies that have come up lately will certainly help in improving the maintenance of amenities at the airport. I have suggested installation of a few latest equipment for the better upkeep of the terminals, re-deploying additional manpower to deal with this problem and providing better training for the existing staff.”
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The Chennai airport modernisation project started in 2009 at a cost of Rs. 2,000 crore and was inaugurated in 2013. Ever since the terminals were open for public use, there have been several complaints, especially about stinking toilets, instances of glass panels cracking and collapse of false ceiling.
“I have asked the authorities to start work on rebuilding the toilets,” Mr. Srivastava said.
The city airport handles about 330 flight movements and about 30,000 passengers every day. There are 18 toilets in the international terminal and 22 in the domestic . AAI officials said that they would first carry out a pilot study of two toilets in the airport — one at the international and another at domestic terminal — before beginning the work on improving them.
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Meanwhile, since the privatisation of the Chennai airport is getting delayed, the authorities here have sought another Rs. 500 crore for renovating the old terminals and installing other facilities for passenger convenience.