‘Kolkata Airport gearing up for expansion work soon’

Kolkata: The Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport is reportedly gearing up to soon start the expansion project involving construction of an integrated terminal for domestic and international passengers.

It reportedly came to light that the airport director has confirmed to the media that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was committed to complete the Rs 5,000 crore expansion work within the next six years, paving the way for the city serving as the hub for flights to east and south east Asia.

Further, the new U-shaped terminal will reportedly have three sections. One of the sections set to come up at the parking lot of the old terminal will house check-in counters, security check portals and baggage handling facilities. It was learnt that the new terminal will be constructed in two phases where in the first phase, the main terminal building will be built along with one concourse jutting out of the southern end. In the second phase, the other concourse will be built at the northern end of the terminal.

The new terminal will have boarding gates on both sides of twin passenger concourses. It was learnt that due to the creative design of the new terminal it will be able to accommodate more passengers than the conventional linear terminal. The new integrated terminal is expected to accommodate over 1.1 crore passengers per annum. Airport authorities are learnt to have told the media that the

capacity of the existing terminal will reach its saturation point in another six years despite the interim expansion of the current terminal which is set to increase passenger growth to 2.8 crore. The airport saw a dip in flyer count post pandemic period.

In 2019-20, it used to cater around 2.2 crore flyers but the passenger counts reportedly reduced in 2023-24 to 1.9 crore despite the post Covid recovery in flyer count.