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State-of-art Kolkata airport terminal off to flying start

Air India's Kolkata-London via Delhi flight, the first commercial one, took off from the New Integrated Terminal Building of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on the great patriot's 116th birth anniversary on Wednesday. The 172-seater Airbus 321 took off from the swank, state-of-the-art new terminal at 10 am, marking a new beginning in the annals of domestic civil aviation.

Flight AI021 on the Kolkata-Delhi-London sector had 150 passengers, including 65 London-bound passengers on board. Passengers boarding the flight through the modern aerobridge were greeted with rosebuds. From Thursday, all domestic and international flights of Air India would be operated from the airport's old terminal building till the new one is available to airlines for regular service later on.

'Air India was the only airline to accept the responsibility of operating this one-off commercial service from the new terminal on Wednesday as its contribution towards the development of air connectivity all over India,' Air India said in a statement. The new 1.9 lakh square metre terminal, which was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on January 20, would be capable of handling 20 million passengers (16 million in domestic and 4 million international sector) annually.

All the facilities of the New Integrated Terminal such as, check-in, BHS, cute, customs, immigration, security check, boarding gate and other necessary facilities were successfully operated on Wednesday. The boarding gate (no 12) was used with PBB and VDGS facilities. Airports Authority of India (AAI) greeted the departing passengers at the entrance of the terminal as other airport stake-holders such as airlines, immigration, customs, CISF, DGCA, BCAS etc joined hands in greeting the passengers of the first flight.  The passengers, who described their experience as very pleasant and comfortable, were all praise for the infrastructure at the new terminal.

Over 4,000 workers toiled day and night  for the new building to finish the magnificent glass and steel structure, spread over 1,89,815 square meters, at a cost of Rs. 2,325 crores. In line with AAI’s tradition of honouring the nation's leaders, it has installed an 18-ft bronze statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in whose honour this airport is named. The design of the New Integrated Terminal was selected through a global design competition to achieve international level of excellence, with emphasis on operational synergy and optimum utilisation of available resources.

The new terminal is a five-tier building with the bottom floor being the arrivals and the upper floor the arrival area. The top floor is a departures and upper departure area, with a dedicated basement for mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) services.

The roof of the building is designed to harvest rainwater both for landscaping and washrooms purposes.The terminal will have a wide apron for parking of aircraft on both the northern and north-eastern sides of the new facility. Eighteen aircraft can be parked in an in-contact configuration format.

These stands will supplement another 53 remote aircraft parking bays. Passengers will be able to embark or disembark from any aircraft stand and proceed to either the domestic or international side.
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