The Airports Authority of India is likely to take two more months to open Chennai airport’s new integrated terminal. As the work is yet to be completed, a part of the new terminal will be opened only by August, the officials said.
AAI officials had said that the multilevel car parking and a part of the new terminal will be ready by June. While the former is likely to be operational in July, the terminal is likely to be ready only in August.
Roofing is nearing completion and the interior work is in progress. “While pandemic caused the major delay, the ripple-effect of it resulted in delays in arrival of many components like elevator and escalators from some countries. We are constantly pushing the contractor and reviewing the work to have it completed. We should be able to open it in August,” said an official. But sources said it might be tough to have it operational in August too and may take even longer than that.
Since the new integrated terminal has been planned to be opened in two phases, the delay will be setback for completing the Phase II project as a whole. The project carried out at a cost of ₹2,500 crore began four years ago to build a new terminal over an area of 1,97,000 square metre.
The ongoing work has caused a lot of inconvenience to passengers, with dust, noise and difficulty switching between the present domestic and international terminals. At many locations, it is difficult for senior citizens to walk in the service road.
Many passengers have been looking forward to the new terminal as they believe some of the basic facilities and infrastructure issues may reduce quite a bit, be it maintenance of toilets or congestion in immigration, delay in baggage collection and security check.
