New Trial Plan To Ease Traffic Jams At Chennai Airport!

In a bid to ease traffic jams near the Chennai airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will conduct a two-day trial of a new traffic pattern on Monday and Tuesday. There will be separate entry and exit points to the domestic and international terminals.

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

The AAI wants to first try out a new traffic management system to handle airport traffic as a pilot and then implement it permanently if it is a success. A survey will be conducted during the trial period on the flow of vehicles.

This trial will help AAI understand how the traffic flow will work on the ground. The results of the survey will be analyzed to find out if any changes need to be done to the traffic pattern. The new traffic arrangement will be implemented in two weeks’ time if it’s a success.

Here are the changes that are going to be implemented for these 2 days –

• The vehicles that come to domestic and international terminals will enter the airport using two entries
• These entries will be routed via two new ramps that connect to the flyover in front of the terminals
• Cars picking up passengers at the domestic terminal need not drive past the international terminal to exit the airport
• An additional entry for the international terminal has been created for the vehicles coming from Tambaram.
• All vehicles queuing up to drive down the flyover will have separate exit routes
• AAI has set up new checkpoints at the three entry-exit points of the airport from GST Road
• The roads inside the airport campus have been filled up with markings to guide cars to the parking lots in front of the domestic and international arrival halls on the ground floor.

The move was part of the original airport expansion plan and the ramps that link the road to the flyover in front of the terminals were ready a few months ago, but AAI wanted to wait till the metro station was completed and train services started. They also waited for the new toll booths to be installed according to the new traffic plan.

These toll 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 must be paid. AAI hopes that the new pattern of vehicle flow will help reduce the complaint of cab drivers that they are not able to exit from the airport campus in less than 10 minutes due to congestion.

The congestions at the Chennai airport was caused by the 20,000 to 30,000 cars that it received every day. Hopefully, this pilot run will help in easing the traffic and will reduce delays and congestions at the airport once it is implemented in the future.