Lack of basic amenities ails airport at Tiruchy

TIRUCHY: Tiruchy has transformed from a quaint little town to a bustling city. But if there is one facility that has not kept pace with the rapid change, it is the airport.The new airport, which became operational in 2009, was initially designed in 2005 to handle 200 incoming and as many outgoing passengers at a time. But now, the passenger traffic has more than doubled with 450 to 500 incoming and outgoing passengers. Add to this, the lack of basic amenities at the airport that does not have even a restaurant.Not just the passengers, even airline operators complain of shortage of space to run their offices.As data indicate, the number of flight movements in domestic and international sector is 1,956 and 5,084 respectively in 2010-2011 as against 2,403 and 4,831 for 2009-2010.With the spurt in domestic and international travel, the passengers hope that the authorities could do well to plan ahead and boost the facilities and infrastructure to cater to the growing number of passengers.“We have an action plan to expand our infrastructure and facilities. We have already invited tenders to set up a restaurant and are hopeful that it would be set right in a month’s time,” said Airport Controller S Dharmaraj.However, Airport Manager for Kingfisher Airlines Suresh Sundaraj said, “The restaurant cannot be modelled on a Delhi or Chennai airport restaurant as the business potential of all the three places is not comparable.”Air India Station Manager T H Radhakrishnan said more and more airline operators were willing to operate in thecity and increase their travel frequency, but one of the challenges they faced was inadequate infrastructure. The air traffic control should be made operational round-the-clock, unlike the current selective time-bands. He also said that a common grouse among the passengers was that they were forced to walk long distances, rain orshine, to reach the terminal building after alighting the flight. While the authorities often cited security as a reason for not letting aircraft to park close to the canopy area, the operators wonder what could be the security issues when the airport is guarded by 290 Central Industrial Security Force personnel. The airport authorities should be flexible in implementing the policies that govern the airports, Suresh Sundaraj added.