CHENNAI: The central govt has set Dec 2026 as the revised deadline for completing the ongoing modernisation of Chennai airport, attributing the delay to the Covid-19 pandemic, cyclones and unusually heavy rainfall.Union minister of state for civil aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was carrying out the expansion and modernisation project in two phases at a total cost of Rs 2,467 crore. Under Phase I, AAI constructed a new integrated terminal building, increasing the airport’s passenger-handling capacity from 23 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to 30 MPPA. The terminal became operational in 2023. Phase II involves the development of Terminal 3, which will raise the airport’s overall capacity to 35 MPPA. “An expenditure of Rs 1,762.08 crore has been incurred on the project till June 2026,” Mohol said.The minister was responding to DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran who sought details of the delays in completing the integrated terminal and parallel taxiway projects. AAI has also spent Rs 236.75 crore over the past five years on airside infrastructure, including rapid-exit taxiways, taxi tracks and link taxiways. The work is aimed at improving operational efficiency at the airport.Rejecting the statement that Chennai airport had recorded a decline in passenger traffic and its national ranking, the minister said it had consistently remained the country’s fifth-busiest airport by passenger traffic since 2022-23. The govt said it had not observed any constraint in the availability of slots at Chennai airport and that no airline request for slot allocation was pending with AAI. Since the deregulation of the domestic aviation sector in 1994, airlines have determined aircraft deployment and route networks based on operational and commercial viability, it added.Responding to a separate query from DMK MP P Wilson, Mohol said the physical and financial progress of the Rs 80crore new ATC tower-cum-technical block project at Trichy airport stood at 76% and 49%, respectively. Construction of a boundary wall around newly acquired land, estimated to cost Rs 51 crore, and alterations to the existing terminal building at a cost of Rs 14 crore have also commenced at Coimbatore airport.
