Tamil Nadu

Terminal for non-scheduled flight operators

CHENNAI: A renovated terminal for non-scheduled flight operators will be opened soon at the Chennai airport.

Airport Director Dinesh Kumar said a building in the old airport had been renovated, and it would be mainly used for scanning baggage and conducting security check of passengers of a non-scheduled domestic flight.

At present, 10 people in the city owned aircraft, and hereafter they could use the facility to complete the check-in formalities.

Mr. Dinesh Kumar said work on installation of in-line baggage scanning had commenced in the international departure area. The facility would be created at a cost of Rs. 8 crore.

The four-level scanning was mainly installed to detect explosive materials. The baggage would be scanned while it passed throgh the conveyors.

Whenever some explosive substance was found, the bag it would be pushed into a loop conveyor for re-scanning. If nothing was found then, it would automatically reach the coach.

To facilitate the landing of A380 aircraft, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would increase the width of the shoulders of the runway by 7.5 metres on both sides, he said.

At present, the runway has a shoulder width of 45 metres, which will be increased to 60 metres.

As part of the AAI’s contribution to conserving the nature, 50 bins had been kept in the international departure area to collect different types of garbage. The other AAI offices would have the bins in phases, he said.

Mr. Dinesh Kumar said the renovation of the old arrival hall at the international terminal would be completed by November.

Once it became operational, another 6,500-square metre area would be available for free movement of passengers.

With the introduction of energy saving measures, the AAI periodically changed the switch room panels, switches, convertors and invertors.

So, the AAI was able to reduce power consumption.

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