Welcome to Chennai International Airport !!!

Chennai, earlier known as Madras, is a city on the east coast of southern India. It is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, this City is India's fourth largest metropolitan city and one of the 35 largest metropolitan areas in the world.The city is a large commercial and industrial centre in India, and is known for its cultural heritage. Chennai's economy has a broad industrial base in the automobile, technology, hardware manufacturing, and healthcare industries. The city is India's second largest exporter of software, information technology (IT) and information-technology-enabled services (ITES). A major chunk of India's automobile manufacturing industry is based in and around the city. Chennai Zone contributes 39 per cent of the State’s GDP. Chennai accounts for 60 per cent of the country’s automotive exports and is referred to as the Detroit of South Asia.

Chennai hosts a large cultural event, the annual Madras Music Season, which includes performances by hundreds of artists. The city has a vibrant theatre scene and is an important centre for the Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form. The Tamil film industry, known as Kollywood, the second largest movie industry in India, is based in the city; the soundtracks of the movies dominate its music scene.

Welcome to Chennai Airport...

 
Proposed New Passenger Terminals

The current development projects include construction of a new domestic terminal and expansion of the current International terminal. The design is a collaborative effort of four firms. While Hargreaves Associates has done the landscape design Gensler and Frederic Schwartz Architects are responsible for the design of the passengers terminal buildings, parking garage structures and access roadway access system. The Creative Group would be the local architects for the project. The proposed design will be connected with the existing terminal design elements. It was earlier reported that the new terminal buildings will have a handling capacity of 10 million passengers and when integrated with existing terminals will provide for a handling capacity of 23 million passengers a year. The new terminal buildings are expected to have an area of about 1, 40,000 sq. m. with 140 check-in counters and 60 immigration counters and the two runways would be interconnected by a network of taxiways. The Terminal complex will have a Flyover Travelator connecting the Domestic Terminal and International Terminal for a distance of about 1 km. It will have an elevated road on the top and a tube below which will have two Walkalators.

The design details of the runways are handled by the Airports Authority of India, while architecture firms are limited to designing buildings on the landside of the runway. The present proposal is parallel to the existing runway. The entire design as being organised around “two lush sustainable gardens” and the wing-like roofs helps collect rainwater and become part of the garden.

 
Visa On Arrival

India on Friday introduced tourist visa-on-arrival for five countries, including Japan and New Zealand, to facilitate bonafide foreign tourists who plan their visits at a short notice. This has been introduced for one year on an 'experimental basis,' a release from the foreign office said in New Delhi.

It said, "To facilitate bonafide foreign tourists who plan their tours at a short notice, government of India has decided to introduce 'Tourist Visa-on-Arrival' for a period of one year for citizens of five countries -- Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore on an experimental basis with effect from 1.1.2010."

"Tourists from the said countries can also procure their visas from the Missions/Posts in the normal course," it further stated.

'The tourist visa-on-arrival' with a maximum validity of 30 days with single entry facility will be granted by the immigration officers at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports to start with, it said.

The grant of a tourist visa-on-arrival will be regulated as per the guidelines prescribed in the Visa Manual, it said. The official spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs said, "The (rule of) gap of two months between two visas would apply to all tourist visa holders."

But the restriction of two-month gap will not apply to PIO (Persons of Indian origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card-holders and foreigners holding business, employment, student and other categories of visa