Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport is set to undergo a major expansion starting next year, as part of its master plan.
In a statement, airport operator GMR Group says the master plan will be implemented in three phases: 2018 to 2021; 2021 to 2025; and from 2026.
In the initial phase, terminals T1D and T1C will be merged and expanded to accommodate 40 million passengers annually - twice its current capacity. The new terminal will have an area of 169,000sqm, up from the current 60,000sqm. It will also have 82 aircraft parking stands and 13 gates, up from the current 71 parking stands and eight gates.
Delhi airport CEO I Prabhakara Rao adds that it has asked the airlines operating at T1 to shift part of its operations to T2 from October as the expansion begins.
The previously-closed T2, which has a capacity to handle 14 million passengers annually, has also been refurbished and is ready to accept "partial load from T1", he adds. During its expansion, T1 will operate at a lower capacity of 16 million.
In addition, T3 will also be expanded to handle 45 million passengers, from the current 34 million. Delhi airport plans to maintain an annual capacity of around 70 million, across the three terminals.
Construction of Delhi airport's fourth runway is targeted for completion by 2021.
“The expansion would enable us to handle the steep rise of the passenger inflow at the airport," says Rao. "T2 and T3 would cater to the growing traffic in the next three to four years by which time, [the] T1 expansion project would be completed... [GMR] is leaving no stone unturned towards making Delhi airport a preferred hub airport of Asia.”
Delhi airport says it handled 57.7 million passengers and 857,000 tonnes of cargo in the 2016/17 financial year.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
