Officials said that they have completed a dry run before opening the plaza. The opening of the plaza was deferred for the past nine months owing to various reasons.

| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

Air passengers can finally heave a sigh of relief as Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu will inaugurate the plaza housing the second cab pick-up point at Chennai airport on September 12.This means, air passengers who book cabs, can board from opposite the T1 Domestic Terminal, instead of having to travel to the multilevel car parking. It is to be noted that the cab pick-up point at the west wing of the multilevel car parking too will continue as usual.With the intention of providing a relaxing area for arriving passengers and visitors, Airports Authority of India (AAI) designed a plaza opposite to the T1 Domestic Terminal. The construction work on the plaza commenced in 2023 and was to be completed in October 2024.In the meantime, the AAI moved the cab pick-up point from opposite to the T1 Domestic Terminal to the second floor of the west wing of multilevel car parking facility, and this did not go well with air passengers who vehemently opposed the move. After a year’s delay in construction, the opening of the plaza was deferred for the past nine months owing to various reasons.Officials of AAI said they have completed a dry run before opening the plaza. “Passengers who make bookings through cab aggregators such as Ola, Uber, Rapido, Fast Track, Red Taxi, and Prepaid Taxi will be able to board the cab from the plaza. These cabs, which wait inside the multilevel car parking, can enter the plaza only if they have confirmed bookings,” an official said.“Passengers who have to take the other private yellow board vehicles (like companies that send cars for their employees or clients) will continue to board from the west wing of the parking lot only. This is because all the vehicles cannot head to the plaza and it may cause congestion,” another official said.“Also, boarding taxis from the plaza will be most convenient for those arriving at the T1 Domestic Terminal. The rest of them arriving at T2 or T4 may find it more convenient to head to the parking area. But even if they want to come only to plaza to take a taxi, buggy vehicles will be present to drop them off,” he added. Published - September 09, 2026 07:00 pm IST