The opening of a part of the new integrated terminal of the Chennai airport has been pushed to the end of this year.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said one part of the terminal — which will house the international operations — will be commissioned by October but it will be open to public only by November or latest by December.
“Although most of the work is complete, we are expecting it to be ready by October. After that it may take another two months to migrate from the existing to the new terminal,” an official said.
In September 2018, AAI began the work on the expansive terminal — comprising both domestic and international operations — whose area will be 1,97,000 sq.mt. at a cost of about ₹2,500 crore to handle 35 million passengers a year. But the project has missed the deadline several times. While the whole terminal has been planned to be built in two parts and was to be completed by 2022, the first part of the project (opening of the new international terminal) itself has been delayed.
Earlier, the officials said the international terminal would be commissioned in June, then it was pushed to August and now, the deadline is October. Even if it is inaugurated in October, passengers will get to experience the facilities only by the end of the year as the migration will be time consuming, officials said and attributed the delay to several factors.
The project comes nine years after the Phase I modernisation was inaugurated at a cost of about ₹2,500 crore. But despite the huge spending, the international arrival hall has not been opened yet and the operations continue in the old terminal.
