Kolkata, Jan. 20:
President Pranab Mukherjee, on Sunday, said the airlines should be
encouraged to use the modernised terminal of Kolkata airport as it is the
gateway to the East.
Inaugurating the new integrated terminal of Netaji Subhash Chadra Bose
International Airport, Mukherjee said the modernised facility would also be
useful as Kolkata would be an important place in terms of the ‘Look East’
policy of the government.
With a capacity to handle 20 million passengers annually, the Rs
2,300-crore terminal has been developed by the joint venture of ITD Cementation
India Ltd and its parent company Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd,
Thailand (ITD). The first flight from the facility will be a Kolkata-New
Delhi-New York flight on January 23. The full-fledged operations will, however,
begin from March-end. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requested the
Airports Authority of India to begin domestic operations in the next 15 days.
The modern facility will have 48 international and 80 domestic check-in
counters, 38 immigration counters, 23 international and 33 domestic security
gates and 18 aerobridges.
V.P. Agrawal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India, said: “More than
4,000 workers worked day and night for the new building at a frantic pace to
finish the magnificent glass and steel structure spread over 1,89,815 square
metres at the cost of Rs 2,325 crore.”
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