Prime minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a new terminal at the Chandigarh airport on Friday.

The terminal building has been constructed at a cost of Rs 939 crores.

It has been designed keeping in mind the growing number of air travellers. The airport has the handling capacity of 1600 passengers in peak hours. It is built at a land mass of 300 acres.

“This is a milestone and will boost the aviation business and will also enhance the overall connectivity for tourism and trade in the country,” said an AAI official.

An official from the ministry of civil aviation said, “It was a much required step. Chandigarh is one of the planned cities of India and we needed an airport that was as advance and modern as the city is.”

The building has 48 check-in counters, four long (72 metre) baggage conveyor belts, three passenger boarding bridges (aerobridges), and a parking for 500 cars. On the apron side, it has capacity for parking 8 aircraft, 7 of ‘C’ Type and one of ‘E’ Type and the Cargo Apron for Two ‘C’ Type aircraft. The new facility has cargo apron measuring 120m x 110m.

India has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the last decade with the growth of passengers by three times from 69 million in 2004-05 to 188 million in Financial year 2014-15 with an annual growth rate of 12% per annum.

Initially low cost carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet will operate but actual operations will take a few more weeks to initiate.