Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Trichy airport to open new terminal building on Feb 22

The new terminal building at the international airport in Tiruchirapalli would be inaugurated on Febrary 22, Airport Authority of India (AAI) sources said.

New building, a two storey complex, with 11,700 square metres with full air-condition comforts was designed to handle 400 passengers, the AAI sources told PTI. New terminal consisted of the spacious public concourse to accommodate 150 passengers, an executive lounge to accommodate passengers and a reserved lounge for VVIPs.

The original estimate was about Rs 75 crore when the project commenced two years back, with the cost escalation and added amenities it could end up at Rs 78 to Rs 80 crore, sources said. Basic structure with air conditions, stand by generators of 2,000 KV capacity, basic amenities for passengers and service providers were all very much in place and 'corrossel' type conveyor belt, imported from Portugal, for luggage would soon get installed at the terminal.

Provisions for three units of aero-bridges had already been made and within six months two aero-bridges (imported from Indonesia) would get installed. Currently the airport was handling ten flights per day (1,500 passengers) in domestic and international sector and the existing terminal building was to be converted into a cargo terminal, for which a blue print had already been prepared.

Tiruchirappalli airport, one of the oldest airports in South India, was even used by the erstwhile Tata airways. R D Tata, the doyen and pioneer of Indian civil aviation had piolated an aircraft to Colombo from here, carrying Christmas mails in 1938.

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