Chennai airport upgrade

Chennai's dream of getting a world-class airport just got a little bit closer to realisation. Chennai-based Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd (CCCL), which has bagged the contract for the Rs 1,212-crore airport expansion, is expected to start work in a month. The work, to be carried out in technical collaboration with Canadian infrastructure company Herve Pomerleau International, is expected to be completed in 26 months.Once the project is completed in 2011, the new-look airport will have the departure lounge on the first floor and the one for arrivals on the ground floor. The building will have interiors that allow natural lighting, an in-campus flyover that will take passengers all the way to the firstfloor departure area and multi-level car parking. This apart from restaurants and recreational areas for passengers. “We are waiting for the letter of award of the contract from the Airports Authority of India. It is expected to come in a couple of days, after which we have a 30-day waiting time to start work,” CCCL chairman R Sarabeswar told a news conference.The expansion and modernisation works include development of the Kamaraj domestic terminal phase II, expansion of the existing Anna International terminal and renovation of the existing terminal to bring about uniformity in design. The passenger handling capacity of the airport will also go up from the existing four million to 16 million a year.CCCL has also bagged the contract for building a Rs 68-crore cargo complex. “The project will be funded using the mobilisation contract AAI will be extending to us, and the rest will come from tie-ups with banks,” he added. CCCL was the lowest bidder from among L&T, Soma Enterprises, Nagarjuna Constructions and Punj Lloyd.
A snazzy steel-and-glass structure, world-class interior design that will allow natural lighting, spacious terminal area, an in-campus flyover that will take passengers all the way to the first-floor departure area, a multi-level car parking — things that you associate only with the best international airports could be the salient features of Chennai airport in less than three years. Designed by Frederic Schwartz Architects, the new terminal buildings will be a milestone in the development of the airport — which has grown from a small unit handling just 10 flights a day in the 70s to a busy facility handling close to 700 flights a day. The modernisation work will include development of the domestic terminal phase II apart from the renovation of existing domestic and international terminals to bring about uniformity in design. The passenger-handling capacity of the airport will also go up from the existing four million to 16 million a year. The proposed state-of-the-art airport will have amenities for passengers that will include restaurants and a recreational area. The international and domestic departure terminals will have natural lighting and minimal use of electrical lights to ensure that the airport becomes a green facility.“We are finally going to have a world-class airport. We will follow the design handed over to us by the AAI, which is expected to arrive along with the detailed letter of award,” said K Manivannan, head of the construction wing of Consolidated Construction Consortium, which bagged the Rs 1,212-crore contract for the expansion of the airport. The expansion will be carried out using the technical expertise of Herve Pomerleau International, who have the experience of doing up the Montreal airport. “They will know the challenges that are thrown up when you are working on a functional airport,” Manivannan added. The Airports Authority of India, which aims to make the new terminals completely green, has already installed separate bins for bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable waste at the existing international departure terminal. As it is, Chennai airport has come a long way, developing into a facility where passengers can relax and keep themselves occupied while waiting for the boarding call. Even AAI officials who have worked at Chennai in the last three decades never expected this kind of growth.“There is a sea change. The airport used to be merely a passenger arrival and departure facility when it was functioning out of the old building in Meenambakkam in the 70s. Now, it is much more than that,” said airport director K Natarajan, who joined service in Chennai in the 70s. The airport was shifted to the existing building at Tirusulam in the 80s. Majority of the development happened in the last two years after a boost in passenger and aircraft traffic.