The Government today approved the construction of a new International Passengers Terminal Building at Trivandrum Airport in two phases at an estimated cost of Rs. 2455.8 million to meet the projected growth in passenger’s traffic at Trivandrum Airport. This will have a Foreign Exchange component of Rs. 269.2 million. The estimated cost of construction of Phase I of the project is Rs. 1655 million and of Phase II is Rs. 800 million.

The existing International Terminal Building at Trivandrum Airport can at present cater to 260 arriving and 260 departing passengers in the peak hours. The international traffic at Trivandrum Airport during 2004-05 was 870,000 passengers; the peak hour passengers traffic being 572 passengers, whereas the passengers handling capacity of the existing terminal building is 520 passengers only.

Recent years have seen a drastic increase in the levels of passenger and cargo traffic. The increase has placed a heavy strain on the existing capacity and highlighted the need for substantial investment to develop and expand facilities. Trivandrum Airport handled 870,000 international passengers and 1,161,000 domestic passengers during the year 2004-05. The international traffic at Trivandrum Airport is forecasted to grow at the rate of 5% upto 2011-12 and thereafter at a rate of 6% upto 2016-17 thus necessitating construction of new terminal building. The international traffic is estimated at 1,225,000 passengers during 2011-12 and 1,638,000 during 2016-17. The peak hour passengers during 2010-11 will be 500 arrivals and 500 departures and after implementation of Phase-II it will be enhanced to 800 arrivals and 800 departures. The existing terminal building is, therefore, already saturated and there is no scope of extension due to the close proximity of adjacent building and other existing airport infrastructure.

In the circumstances, to meet the growing requirements of traffic and to match facilities with those provided at the futuristic terminal buildings across the world, Airports Authority of India has proposed to construct a new international passengers terminal complex at Trivandrum Airport in two phases. After completion of new International Terminal Building the international operation will be shifted to new building. The existing international buildings will be used to cater the domestic operations. The existing international domestic building will be used for office accommodation etc.

An amount of 40 million have been kept in RE of 2005-06 and Rs. 100 million have been budgeted in BE of 2006-07 for the project. Progress of the expenditure will be reviewed and depending on actual requirement, necessary provision will be made by way of re-appropriating within the overall provision.

Subsequent to the PIB approval of the project and Inter-Ministerial consultations, the twelfth meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure was held under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister on June 8, 2006. It was decided that all the 35 non-metro airports will be taken up for development. Trivandrum is one of these 35 non-metro airports.

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