Chennai airport project contract likely by Feb

04-Nov-2007

New Delhi, Nov. 3 The development work for Chennai airport is likely to be completed by June 2010 with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) planning to award the contract by the middle of February next year and give the winning bidder 28 months to complete the project.

Official sources told Business Line that the AAI Board had approved a detailed project report for the development of the airport and a note had been sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for holding a Public Investment Board meeting to enable the project to move ahead. The PIB approval is required as the project cost exceeds Rs 150 crore, officials indicated.

New domestic terminal

During the first phase, which is to be completed by 2010, there are plans for two multilevel car-parking areas, each with space for 1,200 vehicles. In addition, there would be a new domestic terminal that can handle 10 million passengers annually.

The new construction would allow the airport to handle an additional 4 million international and 10 million domestic passengers annually, thereby taking the annual handling capacity to 16 million domestic passengers and 7 million international passengers. There are plans for 72 check-in counters for international passengers and 62 counters for domestic passengers. The airport’s arrival hall would have four aerobridges for international passengers and six aerobridges for domestic passengers.

The project cost is an estimated Rs 2,062 crore, including Rs 638 crore for construction of a new domestic terminal and more than Rs 500 crore for modification and extension of the international terminal.

City-side development

An additional Rs 140 crore is the estimated cost of giving a facelift to the existing domestic and international terminals, along with city-side development.

The cost of a new domestic terminal, modification, extension and facelift of existing terminals, and multilevel car park with city-side development has been estimated at more than Rs 1,500 crore.