Chennai: With air traffic down, Chennai airport has yet again got an opportunity to speed up work on the airside and also on the terminal as there will be fewer hindrances to carry out the work.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) completed most of the work on the integrated terminal building, carried out glass cladding and also installed truss for the roof during the lockdown last year.
Now, as the number of flights has dipped from around 250 per day to 60 handling around 3,600 passengers per day, the airside and the space near the domestic and international terminals are not congested, making it easier to carry out construction work.
The airport is building a parallel taxiway for the main runway, three rapid exit taxiways for the runways and rebuilding a taxiway for bigger planes, parking bays for cargo planes and has other airside work to increase runway capacity and to reduce the time taken by planes to move out of second runway soon after touchdown. The ongoing works cost ₹2,467 crore.
A source from AAI said, “The construction has not been halted because of the lockdown. We have workers at the site. Having fewer flight services helps us as it means less hindrance to work and it is also easier now for us to work at night as international flights are not there. Though work is going on at the expected pace it will be easier if flght operations were not there.”
Low footfalls and meagre transfers between domestic and international terminals has helped in movement of heavy machinery and trucks in front of the existing terminal buildings without affecting movement of cars that arrive to pick up passengers.
25/05/21 Times of India
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