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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Here are some images of new terminal building for MAA not sure if this is final or not but looks good. Enjoy..





Copyrights:
Hargreaves Associates

____

IU's edit:

Project Information:
Chennai's airport's is currently being upgraded in light of the booming air traffic in the Indian aviation. The modernization and expansion of the airport will be done by mid 2011.

The upgradation plan includes the construction of a new domestic terminal, expansion and renovation of the existing Anna International terminal, renovation of the existing domestic terminal, extension of the secondary runway, construction of a new parallel runway and cargo terminal, taxiways and parking bays amongst others.

Click on the renders to view large

The new Domestic Terminal:








A team of architects comprising Frederic Schwartz Architects, Hargreaves Associates, and Gensler based in the United States and Creative Group, New Delhi was selected to design the new terminal.



With the addition of the new terminal, expansion of the international terminal and existing domestic terminal, the Chennai International Airport will be able to handle 16 million passengers/annum by 2011.




The design of the terminal is organised around “two lush sustainable gardens” and the wing-like roofs which helps collect rainwater and become part of the garden.



The new terminal will be spread across 70,000 sq m.









Walkthrough video:








The new terminal would have 72 passenger check-in counters.
 
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#2,545 ·
bonoslack:

I would urge you to look at the map again. There is almost no home that will need to get acquired (maybe 3-4 buildings in total). The land is mostly open, agricultural or vacant land. Some of it already in the possession of the Government. There is sufficient vacant land to build wide access roads as well, both from GST Road and the Chennai Bypass. At most, there would be the need for an interchange of some kind at GST road - this may be the most expensive component of the access infrastructure. There is sufficient space to build parking structures as well. If the Government pays market rates or better (which a private developer of the airport would), it could avoid court cases. If it is feasible in Mumbai, where thousands of people had to be rehabilitated, it is feasible here, where the number perhaps runs into the dozens. It does not make sense to shelve a project of such importance because a few dozen people would be affected. Note that the earlier plans for expansion are not what I have given in the map - for illogical reasons, those plans involved acquiring land in areas where relatively large number of people live.

And all this is feasible now. It probably won't be just a few years from now!

Let me reiterate - a greenfield airport with new equivalent infrastructure and access facilities to the current one will likely be more expensive than expanding this one. It will take longer to develop. And it will be at a significantly greater distance than the current one.
 
#2,547 ·
bonoslack:

Could you please tell me how this is more costly than building the greenfield airport at Sriperumbudur, with no existing infrastructure on site, no transportation links whatsoever, land that is not necessarily any cheaper and which is much farther away from the city than this airport? Especially when expansion here is feasible and can meet the needs of the city for the next 40-50 years! What are the indirect costs you are referring to?
The real costs translate not in money. Its more the political cost.

A Greenfield project maybe a good way to start from scratch and get fancy new stuff. As Sridhar pointed out correctly, the costs of greenfield airport will far outweigh the costs of expansion.

If there is expansion, then

- Needs a western access from Chennai Bypass
- New runway, more akin to Sridhar's picture.
- A new terminal on the west to cater to a different segment (International for example)
- Might definitely infrige on Army lands (OTA). If we treat them with dignity and dont try to boss the military, I think they can be the most logical folks around resolving any problem. Providing proper redressal.
- Pakkam folks will have a big price to pay. Vote politics will be the achilles heel here. I think this can be circumvent by purchasing the lands at slightly above market rates.
-Since Metro and SR already have links (MTC might have to beef up its access), there will be no need for any major connectivity.
- Believe there is a project for connecting Pammal to Sriperumbudur (road) which will give the badly needed connectivity from that direction.
 
#2,548 ·
@Sridhar: Did you try contacting any airport official regarding your proposals? What was their feedback? Is it feasible to divert the river (just shift closer to Chennai bypass along the perimeter) and again to join it near nandambakkam? That will clear up river space which is a kind of hurdle now to expand the existing airport.
There was AAI proposal itself for the parallel runway, which was shot down due to mysterious reasons... (read SG pressure, thats my guess..)

I have reviewed that satellite imagery many times over the years. To my mind, there are three major players - Army lands (OTA included) towards the North, NorthEast; individual home owners of the pakkams and the mysterious owners of larger parcels of land - coconut grove, brick kiln , etc..

Going back to the old posts will give a good time travel experience on this topic.. from the parallel runway .. suddenly criticism came from pakkam people.. it was dropped in favor of the smaller runway and then the greenfield one went thru periods of silence (not sure who was bying those lands behind the scenes) and suddenly now greenfield is back in the game (on paper only).

If CAG can audit this, I will be excited... not because of another scam.. but because you can clearly point in favor of expansion locally..
 
#2,550 ·
There was AAI proposal itself for the parallel runway, which was shot down due to mysterious reasons... (read SG pressure, thats my guess..)

I have reviewed that satellite imagery many times over the years. To my mind, there are three major players - Army lands (OTA included) towards the North, NorthEast; individual home owners of the pakkams and the mysterious owners of larger parcels of land - coconut grove, brick kiln , etc..

Going back to the old posts will give a good time travel experience on this topic.. from the parallel runway .. suddenly criticism came from pakkam people.. it was dropped in favor of the smaller runway and then the greenfield one went thru periods of silence (not sure who was bying those lands behind the scenes) and suddenly now greenfield is back in the game (on paper only).

If CAG can audit this, I will be excited... not because of another scam.. but because you can clearly point in favor of expansion locally..
Yes, expansion of the current one will easily cater the needs for a few decades atleast. But if govt fails to act now, as Sridhar said more n more constructions will start and it will be still tougher to expand the current one in future.

Btw, does anyone know whether Chennai airport has the runway capacity for A380 to land? I was wondering why Emirates & Singapore Airlines both of which have A380s and also provide lot of connectivity with Chennai has not landed any A380s yet.
 
#2,551 · (Edited)
The AAI plan involved building the parallel runway, but not in the alignment I have given. It had an offset, such that it involved acquiring a large amount of land which had approved constructions. I don't know why that was done, specially because alternatives were available that did not involve much displacement of people. Even at that time, the affected residents pointed this out, but nobody bothered to do anything about it. And eventually the whole parallel runway proposal died.

I don't have much contact with any of the authorities in Chennai (unlike say Delhi, where I do). I wrote to the Chennai Metro and Southern Railway (MTP) folks about my proposal regarding the Metro/MRTS connections (detailed on the relevant thread) but have not heard from them. I am not hopeful that anything will happen if I write to either the AAI (they have no authority on their own anyway) or the State Government. Perhaps somebody who has the contacts can take it up - I will be happy to supply all the material. Perhaps this can be SSC's concrete contribution to Chennai's infrastructure development, over and above discussing issues and posting pictures (which are also valuable BTW).
 
#2,552 ·
From a technical point of view, it is perfectly feasible to divert the Adyar river to an alignment that is parallel to the proposed parallel runway, i.e. along the perimeter of the airport towards its North-Western end. The land is also largely vacant. It is regularly done across the world. If that is done, it would free up the entire area between the two parallel runways for taxiways and provide sufficient space for future construction of a massive new terminal (capacity exceeding 50 million passengers per annum). This will meet Chennai's needs for the next 50 years, if not more. The two parallel runways will also be sufficient - with two parallel runways allowing simultaneous operations, there are several airports around the world serving tens of millions of passengers a year.

This is a unique situation for Chennai. Mumbai's airport does not have this luxury, yet is planning 40 million passengers capacity at the existing 900 acres site. Due to constraints on runway capacity, Mumbai has no choice but to build another greenfield airport. Hyderabad and Bangalore both had airports with no possibility of expansion whatsoever (see any photos of Begumpet or HAL airport to see this). They had no choice but to build greenfield airports - far away and with suboptimal links to the city. Chennai, with this acquisition of mostly vacant land (and displacing under 10 homes) can become a 2500-3000 acres airport, with parallel runways and enough space for a massive integrated terminal. And it even has the vacant land to easily build access roads, without the need to build elevated links like in Mumbai. So it has the choice to build a world class facility at relatively low cost. Well connected to the city with good road & rail access already in place and soon, metro access as well.

This is a cry of despair from my side when I see this opportunity being squandered for the benefit of vested interests.
 
#2,554 ·
^^ Beautifully laid out thoughts..

I think SG must be the primary driver. If they are ready to procure and give lands for free in Sriperumbudur, why can they not do the same at the existing airport.

Since the make or break of this idea will be in the political realm. If we cannot provide the land, neither CG or AAI or even third party cannot develop.

The most prudent move by all counts will be, finish this phase of AAI. SG procures the needed lands and gets a third party to develop the phase II expansion.
 
#2,555 ·
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=20660514&postcount=156
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=20660831&postcount=157

I had floated around this same idea 2 years back in this forum, but had no takers. Everyone seem to be excited on the prospect of a new greenfield airport. As the land acquisition has not even started and is not going to start atleast till the end of 2011, it is necessary to revisit the idea of a parallel runway with a modern mid field air terminal.

If google earth updates the airport area with the latest imagery, we could see the extent of the development that has happened on the parallel runway area in the past 2 years. All further discussion depends on this.


Here's a rough plan for the expansion of the current airport. Can somebody point out to me how much land with built up structures are part of this plan? Other than a brick kiln, a coconut plantation, some farm lands and open plots and 3-4 structures, nothing will be affected by this plan.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...d=206265090869479119920.00049bdc176b36f7d7ab2
 
#2,556 ·
Welcome to the party, Ramak27. We have been arguing for this for a long time, it gets revived and then nothing happens other than posts on this forum. On this very forum, the earliest discussion I can recollect dates back to 2005, believe it or not. 6 years!

I would like to do something concrete this time. Would you like to join in? And this invitation is open to other forum members as well. We could collectively prepare a presentation or a dossier making this case, and perhaps somebody like Mr. Kannan or anybody else with access to the relevant authorities including in CMDA and the higher echelons of the SG can present it to them. We can also try and get this disseminated in the media.

The key point is that it is a proposal that
a. Maximizes utilization of existing infrastructure, including roads, railway lines and a brand new metro line being built at reasonably high cost
b. Can provide for the needs of the city for the next several decades
c. Will have minimal impact on anybody living in the neighborhood of the airport - at most 10-20 houses will be affected
d. Has a lower cost and will get done quicker than other options
e. Will be one of the closest airports to the city amongst major cities in India, providing Chennai Airport a competitive advantage

As to whether the satellite map is up to date or not, somebody who is in Chennai might be able to provide us an update.
 
#2,558 ·
Just as an aside, one of the best things that happened in Delhi was that they acquired the land for new runways etc. in the 80s itself. There was no concrete expansion plan at the time, and the new runway was not built for the next 25 years or so, and there were legal disputes and so on. But when the time came to expand, land was available. So much land that they can build one more runway when they need to. (and they built the new runway at the outermost perimeter, so that there would be no encroachment possible). By contrast, neither Mumbai nor Chennai acquired land when it was easy to do so. Even 15 years ago, there was almost nothing for a long distance beyond the airport perimeter on its northwestern side.

Yet, all is not lost. Even today, it is feasible. If only the authorities put the interest of the city and its citizens above everything else.
 
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