Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expanding Bhubaneswar's Biju Patnaik airport, as it works to cater to the growing traffic there.

The state-owned airport operator says Terminal 2 will be refurbished, while a building to link Terminals 1 and 2 is being constructed. This would increase the airport's annual handling capacity from three million to 3.5 million passengers. AAI will invest Rs872 million in refurbishing T2 and constructing the link building.

A third passenger terminal is also being planned for construction, at a cost of Rs9 billion ($127 million). The 58,000sqm building will be capable of handling 8.8 million passengers annually.

Describing Bhubaneswar as "one of the fastest growing airports in India", the airport in 2017 saw a 37.1% increase in domestic passenger numbers to 3.16 million, while that of international passengers more than doubled to 90,000.

The airport will also build a parallel taxiway, which will more than double its hourly movements from 12 to 25, as well as eight additional parking bays. This will cost AAI around Rs1.47 billion.

AAI did not provide any timeline for the planned expansion works.

Located in the eastern state of Odisha, Cirium schedules data shows that Bhubaneswar is linked to nine Indian cities, as well as to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Source: Cirium Dashboard