New Terminal at Airport soon

CHENNAI: The new airport terminal will be inaugurated within the next two months, after sufficient testing is done, said Airports Authority of India Chairman, VP Agrawal. Speaking on the sidelines of the second meeting of air traffic controllers from the BOBASIO held in Chennai, Agrawal said that Chennai’s new terminal would be “one that the city would be proud of”.He also said that he had an extensive meeting with the Chief Secretary on Tuesday during which possible dates for its grand inauguration were discussed. “I spoke with him about how connectivity from the city has to be improved for optimum use of air services,” said Agrawal. “Now that the electricity has been provided, a period of testing and stabilisation of the systems will follow.” On that note, he clarified that all the issues pertaining to the CMRL station near the airport had been sorted out and the height issues had been given the green signal.Agrawal said that though the area was slightly messy at present, they would focus on “greening it up” and repair any temporary damaged sections. “We are also talking to airlines, customs and others to try to get them to move operations inside as soon as we can manage it,” he said.He also revealed that they had discussed the second airport, potentially at Sriperumbudur. “They (State govt) have deliberated over the report and the proposals that we had given them. Perhaps after we meet with the CM, the land acquisition will start,” said the Chairman. When asked when it was likely to happen, he said “soon” and added that the state would bear the cost of almost `3,000 crore. He pointed out that this will take off soon as the current airport would not be able to handle the increasing traffic by 2017-18.