Chennai: The pandemic seems to have delayed the expansion work at Chennai airport by at least six months to a year. The Rs 2,000-crore project to build a new integrated terminal at the city airport has missed its September deadline and is expected to take another five or six months. This is likely to affect the entire phase-2 expansion work scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021.
Work on 1,97,000sqm area between the existing international and domestic terminals began in 2018. The lockdowns to tackle the pandemic and limitations on the number of workers allowed at a work site due to social distancing norms, however, have slowed down the project in the past four months.
As the construction of the terminal has missed its deadline, it will have a ripple effect on the demolition and rebuilding of the international arrival terminal which was to follow. Airports Authority of India (AAI) was scheduled to take up that work after shifting international arrivals to the new integrated building by end of the year.
The entire project was supposed to be completed by December 2021 as per original schedule.
AAI said work is slowly but steadily progressing amid Covid-19 disruptions. The work, stalled in March-end, was resumed in April in a slow pace. Glass cladding of the building, which began in April, is over on one side. Truss installation for the roof of the terminal, shaped like a wave, began in June and is currently underway, while the building has been completed.
“The deadline could not be met because of the unforeseen disruption. But some delay has been weaved into the work schedule because construction at the site, which is in between two functioning terminals and also close to aircraft parking/taxiing area, is not easy,” said an AAI official.
01/09/20 Times of India
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Work on 1,97,000sqm area between the existing international and domestic terminals began in 2018. The lockdowns to tackle the pandemic and limitations on the number of workers allowed at a work site due to social distancing norms, however, have slowed down the project in the past four months.
As the construction of the terminal has missed its deadline, it will have a ripple effect on the demolition and rebuilding of the international arrival terminal which was to follow. Airports Authority of India (AAI) was scheduled to take up that work after shifting international arrivals to the new integrated building by end of the year.
The entire project was supposed to be completed by December 2021 as per original schedule.
AAI said work is slowly but steadily progressing amid Covid-19 disruptions. The work, stalled in March-end, was resumed in April in a slow pace. Glass cladding of the building, which began in April, is over on one side. Truss installation for the roof of the terminal, shaped like a wave, began in June and is currently underway, while the building has been completed.
“The deadline could not be met because of the unforeseen disruption. But some delay has been weaved into the work schedule because construction at the site, which is in between two functioning terminals and also close to aircraft parking/taxiing area, is not easy,” said an AAI official.
01/09/20 Times of India
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