Mangalore:Airport Authority to Construct New Arrival Hall at Bajpe Airport

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 7:53:05 AM (IST)
Raviprasad Kamila for The Hindu

It is expected to be ready in ten months
The hall will be able to accommodate over 200 passengers
It will have immigration and customs counters, a duty free shop and conveyor belt
MANGALORE, July 11: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will construct a new arrival hall building in the existing terminal building area at Bajpe airport here at an estimated cost of Rs. 4 crore. Work on this will commence on Wednesday, according to sources in AAI.
Sources told The Hindu that the new hall was expected to be ready in ten months. Once the work is completed the existing arrival hall will become part of the departure hall and security hold area.
While the new hall will be able to accommodate over 200 passengers at a time, the existing hall has the capacity to handle only 150 passengers. The new hall will have space for immigration and customs counters, a duty free shop, conveyor belt and other facilities.
The annual passenger traffic (arrival and departure) at the airport has been on an upward trend for the past four years. The annual passenger movement at the airport stood at 2.02 lakh in 2002, 2.03 lakh in 2003, 2.64 lakh in 2004 and 2.77 lakh in 2005. According to AAI's projection, the passenger traffic is expected to touch 4.10 lakh in 2006.
In addition to this, the AAI had proposed construction of a new terminal building. However, the State Government is yet to hand over 82 acres of land for this to AAI.
The AAI has made budgetary provisions to construct the new terminal building. As the completion of the new terminal building will take nearly three years after the State hands over the land, AAI plans to build a new terminal hall keeping in mind the increasing passenger traffic.