The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had to shell out an additional Rs 200 crore on the newly constructed international and domestic terminals at Chennai due to delay in completion of the project.

When the project was conceived in November 2008, the project cost was Rs 1,808 crore. This has increased to Rs 2015 crore, said V.P. Agrawal, Chairman, AAI.

Inauguration today

The airport will be inaugurated on Thursday by Vice-President Hamid Ansari in the presence of Tamil Nadu Governor S. Rosaiah and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

While functionally the new terminals are ready, it will take another month or so to start operations. There are a few issues to be sorted out with the airlines, he told newspersons.

The new terminals have a combined capacity of 1.33 lakh sq mt.

The handling capacity will increase to 16 million domestic passengers and 7 million international passengers from the present 6 million (domestic) and 3 million (international).

With the completion of the metro station, currently under construction, the complex will become of the unique ‘multimodal’ interchange hub of air, rail, road and metro connectivity, he said.

>raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in