Expansion of Prayagraj airport in the offing
PRAYAGRAJ : The civil air terminal enclave of Prayagraj located at Bamrauli is all set to undergo a revamp, both in terms of size and passenger facilities. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to expand the airport premises to twice its present size and a proposal of this ambitious project would soon be submitted to the union ministry of civil aviation, say officials.
In operation since 2019, the civil airport terminal enclave, which functions in close coordination of Indian Air Force (IAF) setup in Bamrauli, provides direct air connectivity to a number of cities from Prayagraj, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Raipur, Kolkata, Pune and Gorakhpur.
The civil airport enclave is currently built on an area of 6,500 square metres in which all facilities are available for passengers. There are four terminals at the enclave and two aerobridges too.
“In view of the increasing number of passengers, the expansion of the airport has become extremely important. Currently there is a capacity of 300 passengers but the number is increasing continuously. As there is a need for expansion and we also have land to expand ourselves, a proposal for the same would soon be submitted for formal approval”, said regional director, AAI (Prayagraj), Achal Prakash.
Prayagraj’s civil airport enclave presently on an average caters to 1200 passengers per day. Flights for eight cities are available from here out of which seven flights are operated by Indigo and one by Alliance Airline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India. Besides, flights to Bhubaneswar, Dehradun and Bhopal are also proposed in the coming months.
As per the proposal, the present building of the airport would be expanded on both sides.
The terminal will remain the same but its area will be expanded. Efforts are on to complete the airport expansion work at a faster pace because flights for other cities are also to begin in the coming days, say officials.
Following the expansion, the waiting lounge would be several times bigger.
There would be cafeteria and number of aprons (the place where the aircraft stands) will also increase. Along with this, there is also a possibility of more aerobridges being built at this enclave. Besides, internal and external changes will be seen along with parking area of passengers.