Blueprint to clear airport clutter

Kolkata: Even as construction of the integrated terminal at Kolkata airport goes ahead full-steam to hike domestic passenger capacity from 4.06 million per annum to 18 million by May 2011, officials have chalked out interim measures to decongest the airport by the year-end.
The domestic terminal handles 97 arrivals and departures daily. Disclosing a blueprint to ease bottlenecks in arrival as well as departure lounges, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport director K Srinivasan said measures were being taken to bring much-needed relief to domestic passengers. The situation is particularly bad during the morning (17 flights from 6 am to 7 am) and evening peak hours (13 flights from 4.30 pm to 6 pm).
"At present, the domestic terminal is functioning way beyond capacity. While modernization will resolve the problem in 2011 and create adequate capacity to serve till 2015-16, we have to address the capacity issue before the new terminal is ready so that growth is not stunted," Srinivasan said.
Extension of the domestic terminal towards the city will increase the departure and arrival lounge space in a month. This will help airport officials re-orient facilities such as check-in counters and security check gates to offer greater mobility to passengers.
"The extension work is complete and floor glazing has been done. Altogether, 1,096 sq metre will be added to the floorpace within the terminal. This will increase space in both the departure and arrival lounge," Srinivasan said.
14/07/09 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2009