AAI earmarks Rs 300 crore for Ahmedabad Airport

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has approved in principle a plan to give a facelift to the domestic and the international terminals of the Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel Airport in Ahmedabad.

Over Rs 300 crore has been allocated for the facelift project and the work is expected to be completed in the next two years.

The project includes construction of a new international terminal building at a cost of over Rs 100 crore.

"Work has already been started at the domestic terminal and it is expected to be ready by October. A high-level team of AAI is expected to arrive here to review the work in the next three months," N S Jaldhari, airport director, said on Tuesday.

An international agency has been appointed to design the new terminal. The international terminal building with an area of over 25,000 square metres will have arrow bridges and will be centrally air conditioned.

The new building will have the most-modern electrical and mechanical facilities and a complete building management system for single-point control.

The terminal will have separate apron for parking wide-bodied aircraft.

The domestic terminal of the airport is already under construction and Rs 47 crore has been allocated for the construction of domestic departure terminal. Rs 58 crore has been allocated for the construction of new domestic arrival building. AAI is planning expansion of the existing terminal up to 14 metres on the city side.

The Le Meridien Group of hotel has taken up the contract for setting up four snack bars at the airport. "We are constructing 1,400 metres of parallel taxi track along with isolation bay.

The airport will have modern navigational, communication and landing facilities.