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Outlook: An artist design of what the Chennai airport will look like after the modernisation is completed by Airports Authority of India .

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug 14

The State-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) will soon be able to begin the modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports. This follows the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday giving its approval for AAI to start work on these two projects.

Briefing newspersons after the Cabinet meeting, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, said that the combined cost for the two proposals is estimated at over Rs 3,750 crore.

“Almost 80 per cent of the cost of the project will come from the internal accruals of AAI. If required, they can look at external commercial borrowing for the rest of the monies, although this may not be necessary. Both the projects will be completed in a time-bound fashion in the next three years,” the Minister added.

The Minister said that the modernisation programme will bring the Chennai and Kolkata airports at par with those in Delhi and Mumbai.

“The modernisation programme will also cater to the needs of passengers from Chennai and Kolkata for the next 20 years,” Mr Patel said.

Asked how the modernisation programme will tackle the problem of the secondary runway in Chennai getting flooded during the rains, senior AAI officials said that the new runway being constructed will be above the flood water levels.

Besides, the modernisation programme also calls for construction of a culvert over the Adyar river to overcome the flooding problem.

The extension of the secondary runway by 832 metres and construction of the culvert alone are estimated to cost of Rs 310 crore, officials said.

In Chennai, the expansion plan calls for not only upgrading the airport to international standards but also extending the secondary runway for large commercial aircraft to operate there apart from creating additional space for aircraft movements.

Officials felt that it will be incorrect to say that the traffic projections were ambitious.

“The airport is already saturated and expects to witness a growth in both international and domestic passengers up to 2016-17,” they said.

The modernisation programme is to see the aircraft movement capacity double to 50 movements an hour.

Besides, a new domestic terminal, which will be able to handle 10 million passengers annually, is to be constructed while the existing international terminal is to be expanded to cater to an additional four million passengers annually.

In the case of Kolkata, the modernisation programme will result in an additional handling capacity of 20 million passengers annually.

In Kolkata, the modernisation will lead to the airport being able to accommodate larger and more aircraft.

The airport has witnessed a growth of 6.4 per cent in international passenger traffic and 21.4 per cent in domestic traffic over the last five years.

More Stories on : Modernisation | Airlines

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