New international terminal at Cochin airport takes off today

Passengers at India's first green field airport at Co-chin in the southern Indian state of Kerala can expect to get a hassle-free travel with the commissioning of a state-of-the-art new international passenger terminal at the airport on Friday.
The new terminal known as T3 to be dedicated to the nation by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has a peak-hour capacity to handle 4,000 passengers. The terminal will be able to handle 13-15 air-craft through aerobridges during the peak operation as against the current five aircrafts.
The 1.5 mil-lion sq ft two-level terminal built at a cost of Rs.10 billion provides for 112 check-in counters, in-line baggage screening facilities, 100 immigration counters, 19 boarding gates, six baggage conveyor belts, 15 aero bridges and fully covered alighting and boarding area be-sides a 50,000 sq ft walk through duty-free shop.
A modern parking bay, taxi-link to first floor of the terminal, advanced airfield ground lighting system and a modern X-ray-baggage screening as well as flyovers to-wards the terminal and its exit ex-tending to about half-a-km are the other features of the new terminal. The terminal offers passengers a real feel of traditional Kerala festival with its interior sporting a temple festival ambience. Fifteen real-size statues of elephants complete with caparisons and other accessories welcome the passengers on their arrival at the terminal.
The fibre glass pachyderms line up along T-3 in full festival attires and accessories along with mahouts made in fibre glass. A major attraction of this will be the traditional exchange of colourful umbrellas as seen at Thrissur Pooram, a famous temple festival at Vadakkunnathan temple at Trichur. After commercial operations begin at the terminal from May 25, the umbrellas will be changed weekly. After the commissioning of the terminal, the existing domestic terminal will be shifted to the old inter-national terminal and the domestic terminal will be converted into a business terminal for chartered flights and for business purposes.
A six-storey commercial complex is also being built adjacent to the new terminal at a cost of Rs 360 million. The four-lane road connecting the airport with NH-47 at Athani is also nearing completion. V J Kurien, managing director of the airport company, termed the new terminal as a New Year gift for the passengers.
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