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The swanky new domestic terminal at the Bhubaneswar airport formally started operations with the landing of an Air India flight from New Delhi this morning.
“All domestic operations at the Biju Patnaik international airport have been shifted to the new terminal from today. The new terminal will exclusively cater to domestic air services,” said Sharad Kumar, director- Airports Authority of India (AAI)-Bhubaneswar.
The existing terminal at the airport will soon be upgraded for international operations, he said.
The state-of-the-art terminal inaugurated on March 5 by civil aviation minister, Ajit Singh is built at a cost of Rs 145 crore. The terminal had a trial run earlier in November last year with the landing of Air India flight- AI 9604 from Port Blair carrying about 20 passengers. Equipped with two aerobridges, four elevators and a couple of escalators, the terminal has a passenger seating capacity of 600.
The terminal has 16 check-in counters and parking space to accommodate nine aircrafts.
With a total built-up area of around 200,000 sq ft, the terminal is centrally air-conditioned with peak hour capacity of 800 passengers.
For fast clearance of baggage with minimum waiting time, three arrival conveyors each of 250 ft length have also been built. Parking area has been upgraded to accommodate 400 cars/taxis and 10 coaches. Besides, six rain water harvesting tanks have been constructed for recharging the rain water to ground and help in improving water level of surrounding areas. The terminal building is provided with sewerage treatment plants for treating the effluent and reusing it for horticulture purposes. A 100 kilo watt (KW) solar power station is also planned for the building.
