India's second-tallest Air Traffic Control Tower with a height of 83.8 m (275 ft) is being built in a section of the parking area opposite terminal 1B. The triangular three dimensional structure with soft vertices that has won the Hong Kong Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award for the year 2009, has six storeys commencing from 62.1 m (204 ft)[43] From the new tower, air traffic controllers will be able to see five miles beyond the thresholds of both runways. The tower and its associated technical block and mechanical plant building covers 2,884 square metres.[44] The cost of the fully equipped tower is estimated at INR4 billion.[45] The structure is likely to be ready for handing over to the Air Traffic Control by end of March 2013 and is likely to be inaugurated by October 2013 after installation of ATC equipment.[46]
The existing ATC tower began functioning in 1999 and was built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at an overall project cost of about INR2.80 billion.[47] The old tower stands 60 metres tall, uncomfortably close to the secondary runway. Hence, many such as Singapore International Airlines, Saudi Airways, Qantas and Continental do not use this runway.[48] The old tower also obstructs the path of a parallel taxiway under construction for the secondary runway. The old tower will be demolished after all operations are shifted to the new tower and the taxiway will be completed.