Government approves expansion of Chennai Airport

Government approves expansion of Chennai Airport

The Government gave its approval to the modernisation and expansion of Chennai Airport. The work which is expected to be completed within 26 months of award, will result in an additional passengers handling capacity of 14 million passengers per annum (mppa).

The airport will be upgraded to international standards; the secondary runway will be extended and made suitable for operations of large commercial aircrafts and additional parking space and taxiways to facilitate parking and movement of aircraft will be created.

It may be recalled that in May, 2007, the Committee on Infrastructure headed by the Prime Minister had decided that the Chennai Airport would be developed to international standards by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The Public Investment Board (PIB) approved the AAI’s proposal of the Chennai Airport on 29-Jul-08.

The Chennai Airport is located at an area of approximately 1152 acres with two runways of 3658m and 2085m land. It has separate
International and Domestic terminal buildings with capacity of 3 mppa and 6 mppa respectively. International traffic at the Chennai Airport in 2007-08 was 3.41 million and Domestic traffic was 7.25 million.

Both the terminals are thus, saturated. The Airport has witnessed a growth of 10.7% pa of International traffic and of 24.4% pa growth of Domestic traffic over the last five years. It is estimated that Chennai Airport will further witnessed a combined growth of around 17.13% pa (20% Domestic and 10% International) till up to 2011-12,following which the growth rate is expected to taper to 11.10% pa (12%


Domestic and 8% International) up to 2016-17.

On the basis of these growth projections, the proposal for the Chennai Airport envisages an enhancement of runway capacity, apron capacity and terminal building capacity. The secondary runway is proposed to be extended by 832 m (to make a total runway length of 2917 m) across

A Domestic terminal building to handle 10 mppa is being constructed in addition to the existing Domestic terminal to enable the airport to handle 16 mppa on the Domestic side. The International terminal building is also proposed to be extended to cater to an additional 4 mppa. The airport will thus be able to cater to 7 mppa on the International side. A total of Rs.1077.16 crores is estimated to be spent on the new Domestic terminal, extension of the International terminal and facelift of the existing International and Domestic terminals.

The extended International terminal building is expected to saturate in 2017-18 and the combined Domestic terminal building will saturate in 2012-13. The project completion period is estimated to be 20 months for airside works and 26 months from terminal building works, from the date of award of work.

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