New traffic route at airport to be tried from today

Passengers travelling to the Chennai airport on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, between 2 to 5 p.m. will have to follow a new traffic route to reach the domestic and international terminals.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is carrying out a trial run to open the central arm (which lies unused for years) of a vehicular bridge on the airport premises.

“We will put up a signage so that passengers are not confused. After seeing how the trial run goes in these two days, we will implement the new traffic arrangement permanently in about two weeks,” an official said.

In the new traffic arrangement, passengers going to the domestic terminal will have to enter through the central arm and exit through the right arm. Those proceeding to the international terminal will have to take left from the entry point, use the left arm and exit via the central arm.

An additional entry for the international terminal has been created for the vehicles coming from Tambaram. These vehicles too will climb the left arm of the bridge and exit from the central arm.

At present, passengers take a right from the entry point and climb the right arm of this bridge to reach the domestic and international terminals and exit through the left arm.

Prolonged delay

While the right and left arms of the bridge have been operational for several years now, the central arm was completed only two years ago.

The opening of the central arm was delayed due to various reasons such as the late installation of new toll booths for the new traffic plan.

These booths are essential as they monitor the time each vehicle takes to enter and exit the airport; if a vehicle spends over 12 minutes inside the airport premises, then a parking fee will have to be paid.