Air passengers have to wait for two more years to fully utilise and experience the airport’s new integrated terminal, as it will be fully complete by the end of 2022. But a section of this terminal will be opened in another five months.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said a part of the terminal’s construction would be finished in a few months. This portion would serve as a domestic terminal, apart from the already existing one.
“We have more domestic flight traffic over international. So, this expanded space will help in handling congestion during peak hoursThough traffic was quite low initially after flight services resumed during the COVID-19 period, the growth has been quite good over the last few months and we have nearly 20,000-22,000 passengers now,” an official said.
The old international terminal will be pulled down and the AAI will begin building the new one and finally, the integrated terminal will have a single large international terminal in the centre with two domestic sections functioning on either side. These will be connected internally as well.
“The new combined terminal which will function as one large section for international and domestic operations, having a total area of 2.18 lakh sqm. This will improve capacity from 21 million passengers per annum to 35 million passengers per annum,” a press release said.
Apart from this, the AAI has been building a multi-level car parking and side facilities, including construction of rapid exit taxiways too.
