Bali International Airport expansion project will start in February, 2011 with a project to relieve traffic congestion.

State-owned airport management company was ready to start the first part of a four phase expansion project that would cost an estimated Rp 1.9 trillion (approximately US$211 million), according to company director Tommy Soetomo.

“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."

PT Angkasa Pura I, the company which manages Bali airport will build a new international terminal and convert the airports current international terminal to a domestic terminal. The project will also include construction of a three-story parking lot capable of accommodating 1,500 cars.

The terminal will also be equipped with a transit hotel to accommodate transit passengers. The airport’s domestic terminal is currently operating over capacity, accommodating 4.5 million passengers a year — three times its maximum load.

The airport’s terminals will span 190,000 square meters and be able to accommodate 20 million passengers a year after the expansion project is complete in 2013.

Once the fourth phase is completed, the airport will be the first in Indonesia to have a barcode-driven automatic baggage handling system.

As part of the project to ease traffic congestion around the airport, a consortium of four state companies will build a toll road connecting Serangan and Tanjung Benoa.