Bhubaneswar: The international terminal at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) will be ready by March 2023 after the completion of the renovation and construction of the building.
According to sources, the building will be linked with the domestic terminal with the international one at the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA).
While the interior and civil construction works are nearing completion, the immigration and customs enclosures will be ready soon.
Besides, all mandatory permissions will be obtained before March.
Notably, the old domestic terminal building has been converted into international one ever since the international flight operations started at the airport in July, 2015. The BPIA had been accorded international status on October 30, 2013.
The capital city since then had got a new domestic terminal and the old one was used for international operations with some modifications and a makeover to pave way for arrival, departure, immigration and customs.
“The international terminal will be able to handle five lakh passengers per annum. While the link building will be used for international arrival, the old one will be exclusively meant for departures. Work is going on in full-swing to complete it within the set time limit,” TOI reported BPIA Director Prasanna Pradhan as saying.
It is pertinent to mention here that the airport’s linking building work had started in February 2019.
A portion of the under-construction building had collapsed in 2020 and the pandemic also affected the work. Due to all these, the project had got delayed.
The state cabinet had accorded approval for operation of direct international flights to three destinations – Dubai, Hong Kong and Bangkok – from BPIA last year on December 27.
