A new terminal (on the lines of Aeroport de Paris), a whopping rise in the movement of domestic passengers and finally, a wave-off from the Union civil aviation ministry to a Rs 1,542-crore modernisation programme — Calcutta airport is set to run in top gear.

And if you thought only the city’s gateway to the skies was getting makeovers, look beyond the horizon.

Even the world outside the airport terminal’s fixed parameters in Dum Dum now seems ready to embrace the change, as investors are stepping in, attracted by the significant increase of air-borne passengers over the past two years.

“Our intention is to cash on this rise in flow of passengers,” said Shanti Ranjan Paul, one of the company directors of the DC Paul Group, which is coming up with an apartment-hotel on 33 cottahs of land off Jessore Road.

This is the first time when a hotel will be constructed on land that earlier housed a sick industrial unit.

“There are many star hotels along the EM Bypass. But our decision to acquire the land specifically here is based on the realisation that there is an urgent need for comfortable apartment-hotels close to the airport,” said Prasanta Paul, managing director of the company, on Thursday.

For the state government, this deal has been a win-win situation. Secretary of the industrial reconstruction department Ardhendu Sen said on Thursday: “As a part of the reconstruction process, we wanted a deal that should allow the government a recovery that was enough to make up for our losses incurred on this place and leave us content.”

Sen added: “With this one coming on Jessore Road, our purpose has been served well. Our aim was to recover the amount that was trapped in the sick unit and we’ve done it successfully.”

The group’s initial plan is to build a three-star hotel, modelled on the apartment-hotels available in Europe and Australia, with all the comforts of a four-star establishment, said Paul.

“The investment will be a little over Rs 10 crore and we will provide world-class amenities, tailor-made to meet the demands of national and international air passengers,” he added.

The company has started sounding some of top-line names in the hospitality sector, including the Hilton chain, to add that extra edge to their hotel, as more air passengers surge out of the city’s airport. Between April and December last year, the numbers of international and domestic flights have been 6,885 and 41,477, respectively.