A ceremony was held on October 22, 2015, to mark the opening of the new terminal at Tirupati Airport in India. Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, inaugurated the terminal in the presence of several other members of state as well as the airport operator, the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The new terminal was delivered at a cost of approximately Rs 191 crores (US$29.3m) and can handle 500 domestic passengers and 200 international passengers at any given time. The steel and glass structure was designed to resemble an eagle in flight and is symbolic of religious pilgrimages to the temple of Lord Vishnu (Shri Balaji).
The new state-of-the-art terminal will contain the latest passenger processing technologies including common-use check-in counters, a baggage handling system with X-ray inspection capabilities, passenger boarding bridges with visual docking guidance systems, central air conditioning, FIDS, CCTV and a PA system.
Sustainable and local materials such as fly ash bricks and low heat gain glass were used to improve the environmental footprint of the building. LED lighting and energy efficient chillers have also contributed toward the terminal earning a four star Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) from India’s Energy and Resources Institute.
