By Rohit Vaid

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): The key feature of the Indira Gandhi International Airport's (IGIA) next phase of infrastructure expansion plan -- Terminal 1 -- will be ready by next year, said GMR Group's Deputy Managing Director, I.P. Rao.

At the newly-constructed arrival hall for the upcoming terminal, Rao said: "After T3, we felt a need to have more capacity. The integrated Terminal 1, under phase 3A of the expansion plan, will add the needed capacity. It will be ready by next year."

The newly developed Terminal will have passenger handling capacity of 40 million per annum.

The next phase of expansion plan was launched in 2019. It will enable IGIA to handle 100 million passengers a year.

The GMR-led consortium -- Delhi International Airport -- which operates IGIA, is executing the over Rs 9,000 crore plan.

Besides, the plan envisages an enhanced terminal and air-side capacity to handle up to 140 million passengers per annum.

The project under Phase 3A was expected to be ready by August 2020. However, the project slowed down due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

"We had to face many challenges like everyone else during the pandemic. We had to create a bio-bubble to safeguard our 5,000 workers, who are engaged in the construction work," Rao said, adding, "Associated medical and other facilities were also set up for them."

According to Rao, the challenges of a brownfield expansion programme are different and more challenging than those faced in greenfield projects.

"We had to deconstruct to reconstruct this new terminal," he said.

The integrated terminal will have several passenger-friendly facilities, such as facial recognition system and aero bridges.

As per the plan, the terminal will have a new pier building, to be built as an extension of the merged terminals, with 22 aero-bridges and 15 bus gates.