The interiors of the new Calcutta airport terminal building according to the design conceived by a UK-based firm

Calcutta, July 5: Calcutta airport’s modernisation project is set to start in September and finish one year behind schedule.

Civil aviation ministry officials in Delhi today said it would take 30 months to complete the Rs 2,000-crore project.

“The revised target date for the new integrated terminal building to become operational is January 2011,” a senior official said from Delhi.

The earlier deadline was January 2010.

Work on the project, originally scheduled to start in January, got delayed because of red tape, said sources in the ministry.

Differences of opinion between the Planning Commission and the civil aviation ministry had delayed the project’s formal approval.

The ministry gave the Airports Authority of India (AAI) the go-ahead to select a company to implement the project before the cabinet committee cleared it formally.

“The technical committee is now evaluating the bids to select the agency and it is likely to be finalised in a couple of weeks,” a civil aviation ministry official said.

A Thai-Indian consortium has emerged the lowest bidder. ITD of Thailand, which was involved in building the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, and its Indian partner ITD CEM have quoted around Rs 2,000 crore.

An AAI official said the integrated international and domestic terminal building would be constructed first. “The terminal building’s ground floor will be for arrival and the first floor for departure. It would be followed by the basement car park,” he said.

The extension of the secondary runway to 3,239m and the construction of a new taxiway capable of handling A380 aircraft will be taken up next.

This would be followed by the new air traffic control tower. Designed like a lighthouse, the tower would become a landmark of Calcutta from the sky.

Once the tower is built, the airport’s existing communication, navigation and surveillance system will be overhauled.

UK-based architect RMJM has designed the project.

“There are a few complications in the road network at the airport’s entry point. This will be sorted out in a month,” the official said.