DIAL announces plan to revamp terminal 1

New Delhi: Airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on Tuesday announced that it is set to start the process of Delhi Airport capacity expansion as per the IGI Airport (IGIA) Master plan 2016.

The expansion process will encompass all areas of the airport i.e. Airside, Terminal and Landside. In May 2016, DIAL had finalised the plan with Ministry of Civil Aviation, (GoI) in consultation with all the stakeholders. It is set to roll out the plan in a bid to cater to the future requirements of the passengers without compromising with the world class facilities.

The Master Plan will be implemented in three modular phases- phase 3A from the year 2018-2021, 3 B from 2021-25 and Phase 4 from 2026 onwards.

The departure Terminal, T1D and arriving Terminal, T1 C will be merged into one and expanded to accommodate 40 million passengers every year. This includes modification of Apron to meet future aircraft demand equipped with modern facilities like Bridge Mounted Equipment (BME) and Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS). The modified T1 will also have Aerobridge operations with 22 Aerobridges.

In a bid to minimize the inconvenience to passengers, late last year, DIAL initiated the consultation with all three airlines for shifting to T2 given the need of reducing the load on T1. The mothballed T2 having a capacity of 14 million passengers per annum was refurbished and made ready for accepting partial load from T1.

The expansion works will be carried out along with the normal operations at T1. Certain areas of the terminal and city side will operate at a lower capacity of 16 million passengers per annum (MPPA). However the overall capacity of the airport in view of T2 operationalisation will be maintained at around 70 MPPA. Besides, a fourth runway will be built parallel to Runway 11/29. The fourth runway will be constructed by 2021 that is expected to ease out future pressure on other runways and will be constructed parallel to runway 11/29.

"In view of the robust growth in passenger traffic and upcoming airport expansion works, DIAL is in the process of revamping T2. We have asked the airlines operating from T1 for part shifting of operations to T2 from October 2017. T3, T2 would cater to growing traffic in next three to four years by the time T1 expansion will be complete," said I Prabhakar Rao, CEO DIAL.

In 2006, DIAL had submitted the first master plan to modernize the Indira Gandhi International Airport into world-class infrastructure. DIAL seamlessly executed the Master Plan 2006 handling even greater traffic than was envisaged.