Delhi IGI airport’s Terminal T1A set to be demolished; here’s why

Terminal T1A of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) will soon be demolished to make way for the ambitious expansion plans of the world’s “best airport”. The second oldest terminal of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport- T1A will be demolished soon, according to an HT report. The terminal- T1A was built in the year 1982 in order to host international dignitaries who came to attend Commonwealth Heads of government meetings. Also, as the terminal was exclusively reserved for Air India, it came to be known as the Airbus terminal. However, the oldest terminal of the IGI airport is terminal 1B, which was demolished five years back. Once the terminal 1A is bulldozed, the terminal T2 will become the oldest one at the IGI airport, however, that too is scheduled to be demolished after three years. The demolition of terminals is a part of IGI airport’s expansion drive. As Terminal 1A was lying unused since the year 2010, it will be razed off first.

In the year 1988, Air India was shifted to this terminal and since then, the national carrier has been using the terminal to handle its Airbus operations. Thus, the association between the airline and the terminal is of 22 years. The airport operator, DIAL (Delhi International airport Limited) had earlier planned to use the terminal for Haj operations as well as for charter planes, however, it never materialised.

According to a DIAL spokesperson, the work to eliminate the terminal 1A will start in a fortnight. The spokesperson said that the airport has already completed barricading as well as associated preparatory works. An Air India official, who earlier worked at the terminal said that suddenly there was a growth in domestic passenger traffic and the AAI decided to shift Air India and its Airbus flights to terminal 1A. Later, other smaller airlines such as Go Air and others were shifted there, he said.

The expansion of the airport will take place in three phases- phase 3A from 2018 to 2021, phase 3B from 2021 to 2025 and phase 4 from 2026 onwards. As per the expansion proposal, the departure terminal 1D and arrival terminal 1C will be combined and expanded in order to accommodate 40 million passengers per year. Last year a revamped Terminal 2 of IGI airport had been opened to make way for expansion work at Terminal 1. Once that is complete, T2 will be demolished to make way for a more world-class T4.

Source: Financialexpress

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