Trial run at Chennai airport's new terminal-2

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Chennaiites Padmashree and Selvaraj, travelling from Mumbai, were pleasantly surprised as they were among the fortunate few to enter new domestic terminal-2 at the city airport Monday. “I find this terminal building breathtaking. There is so much greenery around and the building is designed aesthetically,” said Mr Selvaraj.

It took Ms Padmashree more time to believe that she was one among the 136 passengers privileged to use the new terminal first. “We keep reading about airport expansion, but I never imagined that I would be walking into it on such a special occasion,” she noted.

A statement from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the trial run of domestic terminal-2 was successfully carried out with the arrival of Kingfisher flight IT 187 from Mumbai that reached the city at 1.30 pm. The passengers were given a special welcome and served refreshments before they left the terminal.

Airport director E.P. Hareendranathan said the formal inauguration has been deferred to June as all stakeholders needed time to move in. “We will continue with the trail runs. Next on the agenda is to check how a departing flight schedule is handled from this terminal,” he added.

Mr S. Bhaduri, executive director (projects), AAI, said new domestic terminal-2 was ready for trial runs in January 2012 but there was a delay in receiving 110 KV power from TNEB that was initially expected by December 2011. “We got the power supply by end of March 2012. The trial run, testing and commissioning of all installed equipment, services and so on took a minimum period of 45 days,” he added.

While the capacity of the new domestic terminal will be 10 million passengers per annum, peak hour handling capacity will be 3,300 passengers.