Kolkata's runway dreams

Kolkata: In a Rs 1,942-crore revamp exercise, the AAI plans to make the city's airport fit for the largest passenger aircraft — the A380.
Even as private airport developers in Delhi and elsewhere struggle to find money for their projects, Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport has begun work on a Rs 1,942.51-crore modernisation exercise that will enhance its capacity five-fold to 24 million passengers per annum, and, allow the ultra-large A380 aircraft to land and take off from its tarmac. The time-frame for the first phase of the project is a little over two years.
Once the upgrade and expansion plan is executed, the integrated airport will be able to handle up to 7,520 passengers per hour, up from the current 2,850 people it can manage. It will then overtake the Bangalore airport in capacity and be next in size only to the airports at Mumbai and Delhi. The modernisation project is being undertaken by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), after the Left parties said that Kolkata airport will not be allowed to be privatised like the airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
In the first phase, the second runway will be extended to 3,200 meters and 11 additional parking bays for aircraft will be constructed. There are 36 bays currently. Also on the cards is a new control tower, a technical block and a multi-layer car park for 1,400 cars.
Both the runways will also be able to handle the world’s biggest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, and additional apron suitable for parking a 23 ‘C’ type of aircraft. The new integrated passenger terminal will have world-class steel and glass structure with modern passenger facilities like passenger boarding bridges with Visual Docking System to guide pilots to align aircrafts with the aerobridges, central air-conditioning, escalator and baggage conveyor system in the arrival as well as the departure hall.
07/01/09 Sohini Das & Ishita Ayan Dutt/Business Standard

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Categories: Airports Jan 2009