Final plan for new Kochi airport terminal in September

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The final design of the new three-storey international terminal will be ready by September and the preliminary works have been started, CIAL managing director V.J. Kurien said.

“We expect clearance for the final design being prepared by KITCO before September. The terminal, which will be spread over a one million sq ft area, is part of the projects to fuel the development requirements of the airport in the next 25 years,” the official said on the sidelines of a function in which the state’s biggest single AC conference hall near the Nedumbassery airport was opened by chief minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday.

The terminal building has been planned on three levels – departure at the second level, arrival at the first level and immigration, customs and baggage screening to come up on the ground floor.

It will have the capacity to accommodate 4,000 passengers during peak hours and will have 16 aero-bridges and an additional 30 parking bays. The target is to commission the terminal in the last quarter of 2014.

Meanwhile, excise, ports and airports minister K. Babu said the government was currently trying to operate direct flights to Europe and the US.

He condemned the statements of “certain elderly people” that CIAL was awarded the consultancy work of Kannur airport as part of a conspiracy to slow the work down.

“We first gave the work to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) but only when they failed to submit the project on time were we forced to give it to CIAL which completed it before the deadline,” he said.