AAI to upgrade Chennai airport

Mumbai: The Prime Minister's Committee on Infrastructure which met in New Delhi on June 15 has decided that the Chennai Airport will be upgraded and modernised by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The committee has also asked for a pre-feasibility report for a greenfield airport near Chennai.

The modernisation and restructuring is expected to cost around approximately Rs2,350 crore, of which cost of construction of runway, taxiway and apron would be around Rs1,100 crore and cost of construction of terminal building, cargo building, car park and face uplift would be Rs1,250 crore.

The present airport in Chennai handles about 25 aircraft per hour and for the year 2006-07 as a whole the airport handled 97,680 aircraft. The capacity of the airport to handle aircraft movement is expected to be saturated by the year 2014-15.

The airport handled 2.8 million passengers in its international terminal in 2006-07. The capacity of this terminal is 3 million annually and it is expected to be saturated by 2007-08. Similarly, the domestic terminal which handled 5.9 million passengers in 2006-07 has a capacity to handle 6 million passengers annually and will be saturated by 2007-08.

The airport cargo handling capacity is also expected to be saturated around the same time.