No traffic congestion expected at Chennai airport after opening of T4 terminal
The Hindu
Chennai airport to have no traffic congestion when T4 terminal opens; Olympia Group CEO A. J. Balaji says resources in place to manage situation; Aerohub Mall and 3-day carnival launched; MLCP opened last year; passengers complain of traffic congestion, queues, and parking fee issues; Balaji says no congestion, peak hours managed, working with AAI to place more signages.
There won’t be any traffic congestion within the Chennai airport when the second domestic terminal (T4 terminal) becomes operational, A. J. Balaji, CEO, Olympia Group said here on Friday.
While speaking on the sidelines of the formal launch of the Aerohub Mall and a three-day carnival, within the airport premises, he said that they don’t foresee any congestion because the traffic planning has been done well and resources will be in place to manage the situation. “We decided to build it as an integrated parking along with commercial establishments. We thought about what could be the right mix — retail, F&B and entertainment with parking. A blend of all these have been incorporated in this mall,” he said.
The airport has a multi-level car parking (MLCP) which was opened last year and within this building is the Aerohub Mall and a multiplex. The soft launch of the mall was done sometime back. There were complaints about traffic congestion and queues for vehicles inside the airport after the MLCP was opened. Some of the complaints still persist even today and passengers continue to take to social media to post about the issues and demand better traffic management. Be it the walk to the multi-level car parking after exiting the terminal or to board a cab, on many occasions, it is pretty difficult and tiring and passengers have posted about these issues often on X (formerly Twitter). They also allege about having to pay for parking fee despite exiting the airport premises within the specified time.
Responding to these issues, Mr. Balaji said, “There is no congestion. Despite the crowd that we see everyday, there is no congestion within the airport premises and adequate measures have been taken in this regard. For passengers who claim they faced issues [regarding payment of parking fee], each and every problem has been responded to and their issues have been addressed. In many cases their interpretation is wrong and we have clarified to them.”
He said they identified the peak hours and adequately placed resources to manage the situation. He added that they were also working with the Airport Authorities of India to place more signages and hope that a lot of transit passengers would use this facility.
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