After the end of Durga Puja holidays, there was a huge crowd of passengers on Kolkata’s Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, also known as Dum-Dam Airport. According to the information given by the airport officials, on October 4 and 5, about 2 lakh passengers have returned from Kolkata. About 3.6 lakh passengers came from the airport in the six -day period (Panchami to Vijay Dashami).
Special arrangements implemented at the airport
A total of 67,489 passengers reached the airport for return, out of which 64,630 were domestic and 2,859 international passengers. On 6 October, the airport made 28,577 domestic arrival and 27,431 domestic departure. Along with this, 3,210 international arrival and 2,946 international departure. On October 5, domestic passenger activity was the highest with 30,170 arrival and 30,220 departed. International passengers were 3,716 arrival and 3,793 departs on 5 October. On October 4, 28,360 domestic arrival and 28,987 domestic departure and 4,119 international arrival and 3,164 international departs were recorded. In view of the increasing crowd, airport officials implemented special arrangements for two days and two nights so that passenger facilities are maintained and the disruption is reduced. Due to this, crowds were seen at the taxi stand and bus stop.
Kolkata Airport will get new expansion
Kolkata Airport currently handles high passenger number through a modern integrated terminal (T2). It is for both domestic and international operations. It is a L-shaped terminal inaugurated in 2013, equipped with 128 check-in counters, 78 immigration desks and 18 aerobridges.
To handle the fast growing passenger traffic, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has launched a multi-step expansion scheme last year to increase the current annual capacity from 26 million to 45 million from 2033. The plan is to increase the modular expansion of the current terminal, elimination of old domestic terminal and construction of new U-size terminal (T3), and aircraft parkingway. After the new terminal is turned on, the T2 will only be for domestic flights, while the new T3 will handle both domestic and international flights and help Kolkata a major airways hub in eastern India.
