The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2018 | Page 13

WORLD NEWS Chennai Airport will have capacity to cater for 35-million passengers a year. India, according to an IATA traffic study, is in seventh position in terms of air traffic volumes and is likely to take the third position by 2023/24, in the process overtaking the UK, Japan, Spain, and Germany. To meet the growing demand, the Indian government has launched a new initiative, NABH Nirman (NextGen Airports for Bharat), under which systems and processes are geared to provide enhanced airport capacity to handle one billion trips in the next 10–15 years. Cabinet has approved the expansion and modernisation of three of the country’s airport terminals at Chennai, Guwahati, and Lucknow airports, at a cost of R4.6-billlion (USD370-million), R2.6-billion (USD207.5-million), and R2.3-billion (USD184.8-million), respectively. The new Lucknow Airport integrated terminal will have an area of 88 000m², along with the existing terminal building of 16 292m². The new terminal building will cater to the requirement of passenger growth up to 2030/31, with an annual capacity to handle 2.6-million international and 11-million domestic passenger traffic. The proposed Chennai Airport terminal building will have a total built-up area of 336 000m², including the present proposal measuring 197 000m². It will have an annual capacity to handle 35-million passengers a year and incorporate ‘green’ building features. It will cater for passenger growth up until the year 2026/27. The Guwahati Airport new terminal building will have an area of 102 500m² to handle combined annual capacity (old and new terminals) of nine million passengers a year, and cater for passenger growth up to 2026/27. CEC July 2018 - 13