Mumbai, Nov. 7 -- Terminal 1A of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), which was shut down in 2016, will be demolished soon along with a defunct chiller plant and a temporary shed located on the premises, officials aware of the matter told Hindustan Times. The space freed up after demolition will be used for airport-related expansion activities, the officials said. "The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is the planning authority for the airport area, gave an NOC (no objection certificate) to demolish terminal 1A on September 24, 2025," an official told HT. The terminal used to cater to domestic flights operated by the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which was later merged with Air India, before it was shut down in 2016. Though it did not have enough space for maneuvering and parking vehicles, it had a few rooms for VVIPs, which hosted important political meetings involving former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former United Progressive Alliance president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The terminal, inaugurated in 1992, was the first airport in the country to have aerobridges, said a former Air India employee, requesting anonymity. "It was a state-of-the-art terminal in those days and VVIPs used to prefer it. In 2014, when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat and had come to Mumbai to launch his poll campaign, he was given a big welcome at the terminal," the former Air India employee said. After the serial blasts on local trains in the city on July 11, 2006 and the 26/11 terror attack in 2008, the meeting rooms in the terminal were used to formulate strategies to tackle such events. "The structure has outlived its life and cracks have appeared at some places," the person said. The CSMIA has also called for expressions of interest for refurbishment of terminal 1. The terminal will not be demolished till the next phase of the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NIMA) is completed by 2029-30 to ensure there is no disruption to air traffic and airport capacity, sources said. "Terminal 1 will also be pulled down eventually to make way for a larger structure," an official said....