The expansion of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport will get underway this month, beginning with a project to relieve traffic congestion.
State-owned airport management company PT Angkasa Pura I, which manages the Denpasar hub, is ready to start the first part of a four-phase expansion project that will cost an estimated IDR1.9 trillion (US$208 million), according to company Director, Tommy Soetomo.
“Construction will begin in February. So far we haven’t missed a deadline. Everything remains on schedule,” Soetomo said. “The project will be divided into four phases. The first phase includes building access roads for the surrounding environment and the second phase is building a parking area.
“The third phase is building the terminal, which will start in March or April this year. The fourth phase is creating an automatic baggage handling system,” he added.
The company will build a new international terminal and convert the airport’s existing international terminal to a domestic hub. A new three-story parking lot will also be construction, capable of accommodating 1,500 cars.
The new airport terminals will span 190,000m² and cater to 20 million passengers per year once the project is completed in 2013.
“Currently around 11 million passengers a year arrive and depart through this airport, and the number keeps rising. That’s why we should complete the project as soon as possible,” Soetomo said. “If we don’t address the overcapacity problem it will affect safety and security.”
As part of the project to ease traffic congestion around the airport, a new toll road will be built connecting Serangan and Tanjung Benoa. The 11.5km road will cost an estimated IDR3.5 trillion.
