Preliminary work to construct remaining part of integrated terminal begins at Chennai airport

Chennai airport undergoing ₹2,467 crore modernization to expand and improve facilities, aiming to handle 30 million passengers annually.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has begun the preliminary work to build the remaining portion of the new integrated terminal building at Chennai airport.

The phase II modernisation work is being carried out at a cost of ₹2,467 crore and the project took off, a few years back, with an aim of expanding and improving facilities at the airport.

The work was divided into two phases. When the first phase was completed, one part of the new integrated terminal building, was thrown open to the public last year, where the international flight operations are now being handled.

Officials of AAI said, the demolition of T3 building was completed a few weeks ago and the contractor has taken up preparatory work to construct the remaining portion of the new integrated building.

“We are hoping to finish the construction of the building by December 2025. When it is completed, the entire new integrated terminal building will take care of the international operations. The expanded facility will have the ability to handle rise in passenger traffic with ease,” an official said. 

Officials also said that they have been planning to add some more facilities in the upcoming building. “We want to have a mini hotel with rooms in this building, the plan for which is getting finalised. There will be more escalators and lifts as well. We are also thinking of adding more self baggage drop facility here,” he added.

At present, two domestic terminals (T1 and T4) and a part of the new integrated terminal building, serving international flight operations, are functional. Once the T3 building is built in the next one-and-a-half years, all four terminals will be able to handle congestion better and the airport’s handling capacity would go up from 23 million passengers a year to 30 million passengers a year.