By IANS,
New Delhi : The new domestic terminal at the capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) will be ready by the end of this year, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here Thursday.
Patel, who inaugurated the airport’s third runway – at 4,430 metres one of the longest in Asia – said it will be operational “sometime in September”, and that the first phase of the new international terminal would be ready by 2010 in time for Commonwealth Games.
The minister said Rs.90 billion has been set aside for development of the IGI airport.
The runway has been developed by the Delhi Airport Development Ltd (DIAL), a joint venture led by infrastructure developer GMR Infrastructure.
“DIAL is also building a brand new domestic terminal which should be ready by this year on an investment of Rs.5 billion,” Patel said.
He also said the government had drawn up plans to build airports at places that did not have any, or upgrade those which were in a bad shape.
GMR said the runway construction had been completed six months ahead of schedule.