Kochi: Imagine arriving to the backdrop of a shower of festoons and the accompaniment of Chendamelam that spices up the Thrissur Pooram in an international airport terminal.
That is exactly what would happen when the Rs 1,000 crore T3 international terminal of the world's first fully solar powered airport, the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which was inaugurated by state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Friday, commences commercial operations in May.
With the commencement of commercial operations of the T3 terminal, slated for May 25, the existing international terminal would be converted into domestic terminal.
The foundation stone for T3 terminal, with a built up area of 15 lakh square feet, on February, 1 2014 at the CIAL, which is run on a Public Private Participation (PPP) model.
The T3 terminal, which showcases Kerala's unique temple architecture, will have a peak hour handling capacity of 4,000 passengers.
Work on the T3 terminal was undertaken by vendors including 30 international firms and the effort bore fruit due to the relentless pursuit of 5,000 labourers without a break of even a day.
KITCO, which was the consultant for the first terminal of CIAL, played the role for T3 too.
The construction of the Rs 34 crore flyover has also been completed.
The Pooram Backdrop
Fifteen elephants made in fibre have been put in place at T3 to provide the Pooram ambience to passengers.
The fibre elephants were made by Chandran of Pothoorkara near Thrissur.
The T3 terminal is also a comparatively low cost affair. In 2008, the 56 lakh square feet T3 terminal at the Delhi airport was constructed at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore while the 15 lakh square feet T3 of CIAL cost just Rs 1,000 crore.
The glitzy T3
The T3 terminal is spread across three floors and the departure lounge is at the third floor. Passengers can reach the departure lounge directly through the flyover.
After completing check-in and emigration formalities, passengers can directly board the flights through the aero bridge.
The second floor is envisaged for aero bridge connectivity, where arrival passengers will reach immediately from the flights. Customs and immigration counters function here.
The passengers can then avail the facilities of a duty-free shop spread over 50,000 square feet.
CIAL's growth
In the last calendar year, CIAL recorded 74.16 lakh passengers, an increase of 21.48 per cent from the previous year's 61.045 lakh.
Twenty four airlines operate flights from CIAL, which recorded 56,196 aircraft movement iwn the last financial year.
At present, CIAL is the fourth largest airport in terms of international passengers and seventh in terms of total passengers.
With the first phase of SmartCity also commencing operations, the bustling port city's ambitious plans to conquer new horizons would get more wings to fly, courtesy the T3.
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