Facelift to tackle space crunch at Kolkata airport

Kolkata: Queue up to enter the airport. Queue up before baggage X-ray machines. Queue up again at check-in desks. And then join a serpentine queue to undergo security check. Jostle with fellow passengers to grab the elusive seats at the security hold lounge. Walk into the stinking washroom at your own peril.
The domestic terminal at Kolkata airport, one of the best in India till less than a decade ago, now resembles a railway station. The airport director is candid enough to admit that there are days when it is worse than a station platform, with three times the passenger pressure that what the terminal is equipped to handle.
But passengers will have to bear with the situation for at least a year more. For the airport staff, it will get more challenging as they attempt to fit more flights and passengers in a space that is already terribly cramped. It is only around the end of next year when the `1,600-crore integrated terminal opens that the space crunch will ease and, with it, most of the problems that currently dog the airport.
For the record, the domestic terminal has been handling over 13,000 passengers daily in recent weeks when it had been built for 5,000 passengers. This year, the domestic passenger count is expected to touch 9 million against the terminal capacity of 4 million. The new terminal will be four times larger than the existing one, enough for passengers to saunter in and out without bumping into each other for at least five to seven years more.
31/10/10 Times of India

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Categories: airports Oct 2010