New plaza at city airport ready, but wait for second cab pick-up point extends

Chennai airport’s plaza, which will house the second cab pick-up point has been built and ready, but much to their dismay, air passengers will have to wait till early March to access it.

In 2023, the work to beautify the space opposite the T1 domestic terminal at Chennai airport and to develop it as a plaza commenced with October 2024 as the deadline. But the project was marred by numerous delays due to various reasons and has finally been finished.

In July 2024, when the designated location for boarding cabs changed from the erstwhile flagpole point near the T1 domestic terminal to the multi-level car parking space, air passengers were irked and exasperated.

Many often point out on social media platforms about the cumbersome process of taking a buggy vehicle, then queuing up to board an elevator at the multi-level car parking lot, and finally hopping on to their cabs.

To provide some respite to this problem, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) decided to establish a second cab pick-up point for air passengers at the plaza (where the flagpole point existed back then). All these months, the construction was delayed. But now, though the construction of the plaza is over, air passengers have to wait longer for an easily accessible cab pick-up point.

Sources at AAI said though they want to launch the second cab pick-up point at the earliest, there has been a hitch.

Revenue loss

“After commencing this additional pick-up point, there should not be any revenue loss to the contractor. Hence, a committee examined this proposal and recommended that there will not be any such issue. The contractor was also brought on board, and the traffic patterns and vehicle flow were decided in a way to avoid any revenue loss to the firm,” a source said.

Sometime back, the contract of the firm, which was earlier handling the multi-level car parking facility was terminated. “There is an arbitration in progress with regard to this issue. Hence, before commencing the second pick-up point, to avoid any implications, legal opinion is being sought. Since public money is being used and it is also a crucial passenger service, and to ensure there is no further inconvenience to them, it is being done. We are trying to complete it soon and the pick-up point will be opened by early March,” he added.

Karthik Kannan, a frequent flyer noted that even a few days back, he encountered a lot of difficulties and delays before boarding his car. “After landing at the airport, I got a buggy quickly, but I waited for almost 15 minutes to board the elevator. There were long queues outside four lifts. Instead of waiting further, I decided to walk to the exit, and the driver brought the car out. By the time, I exited the airport, it took me another 15 minutes. It was an exhausting experience,” he said.