Han Ximin

ximham@126.com

WHEN Shenzhen International Airport opens its new Terminal C, slated for the latter half of this year, most passengers will no longer have a use for terminals A and B.

The airport’s current two terminals will be used for purposes other than major airline travel after Terminal C opens, but airport officials didn’t specify further. Previous media reports have speculated that the terminals could be renovated into exhibition centers.

The 450,000-square-meter Terminal C will offer 65 berths, 14 long-distance berths and 208 boarding counters. The airport’s yearly passenger capacity is designed to reach 45 million by 2020.

Chengdu’s airport surpassed Shenzhen’s airport in 2011 to have the fourth-largest passenger turnover in China. Shenzhen’s airport handled 29 million passengers in 2012, but officials say its growth has been bottlenecked by terminals A and B.

To facilitate use of Terminal C, the 4.5-kilometer, east-west Jichang South Road will be built into the major link between Terminal C, Bao’an Boulevard and National Highway 107. The road will end at the Hezhou Flyover on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway. Roadwork is expected to end in June and the road should be open by August, according to transportation officials.

The opening of Terminal C is one of 111 projects that local government is planning to complete this year.

Other projects involve education, health care, housing, social security, food safety, transportation, culture, public security and more.

Shenzhen will expand schools’ enrollment capacity by 23,000 this year, and 60 percent of community clinics will implement home services.

The city also will make about 10,000 bikes available for public rental and introduce 100 cabs for people with disabilities.