The design is a collaborative effort of four firms including Hargreaves Associates as landscape designers, Gensler and Frederic Schwartz Architects as designers for the passenger terminal buildings, parking garage structures and access roadway access system and Creative Group as the local architects for the project.
The new three level domestic and international terminal will be a contemporary structure featuring twin wing-like hovering roofs providing 300m-long column free space. The building will have an open web steel superstructure that supports the twin curved roofs with a shade expansive glass curtain wall. The departure area will be featured on the top level with the arrivals section on ground level. The arrivals section will form the base for airlines and other offices with the basement reserved for luggage scanners.
Spanning 67,700 square metre, the building volume is divided into the landside and airside programmed operations, connected with a central security check point for departure besides two glass bridges on either side of the building for arriving passengers. Departing passengers can use four gates that can be reached through a mini flyover inside the airport.
The structure is currently under construction. It will also have a provision of seven gates, two hardstand hold rooms and 52 check-in counters, besides eight counters for e-ticketing.
The proposed three level International Integrated Terminal Building spans over an area of 59,300 square metre with the provision of two gates with multiple hardstand hold rooms, 52 check-in counters, eight counters for e-ticketing, 18/10 immigration/Custom counters for handling passenger arrival and 18/4 immigration/Custom counters for outgoing passengers.
The terminal buildings will also incorporate various water management techniques like water-efficient landscaping, rain water harvesting, water-efficient fixtures, use of treated gray water for air conditioning cooling system and effluent treatment plant to treat the waste water for reuse.
Both the terminals will be equipped with an inline baggage handling system, which is capable of Level 4 security screening system. This system consists of four departure conveyors of a total length of 3500m and can handle 1,200 baggages per hour.
Post completion, the handling capacity of the Chennai Airport will become 23 million passengers per annum with 16 million in domestic and 7 million in the international terminal.
