The new terminal of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius, with a capacity of four million passengers, has been designed by ADPi. It is implemented by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), the main contractor for engineering, procurement and construction of this project.

CSCEC has launched an international tender to supply a ‘turnkey’ baggage sorting system, which shall conform to the latest IATA recommendations and to the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The original technical solution proposed by Alstef was chosen after a detailed analysis of its contribution to the optimisation of investment costs, the reduction of system operating and maintenance costs, which will benefit the end-customer Airport Terminal Operations (ATOL), and the reduction of the space needed for the baggage sorting system.

The facility includes:

  • 60 check-in stations for standard bags, four for oversize bags
  • One line for bags in transit
  • Full system control, supervision and video surveillance
  • 100% baggage screening ensured by five levels of screening, as defined by IATA
  • Sorting at departure on three carousels
  • Six lines of baggage drop-off for arrivals, each with a carousel. Three are equipped with X-ray machines for customs control
  • One arrival line for oversize bags

Flights to the US are processed in a specific manner. From any check-in station, the bags are automatically routed to tomography for levels 3 and 4 screening. Baggage tracking and association with the airport computer system are provided by the software BAGWARE®.

The flexibility of the system is a major component of the project. Multiple redundancies have been implemented from the check-in stations so that in case of equipment failure there is always a solution preventing the operations from being interrupted.

Alstef will also be responsible for the preventive and corrective maintenance of the whole baggage sorting system for the first two years of operation. Commissioning is scheduled for June 2012.