PARIS. April 19. KAZINFORM - ADPi has won a contract to design the new terminal at the international airport of Almaty, the most important city in Kazakhstan. Yesterday, in the presence of ADPi teams and its president, Marc Noyelle, the Kazakh official authorities laid the first stone of the building. The works should end in less than two years. This contract follows a first order made last year by Almaty international airport for a revision of the airport master plan. It hence illustrates the confidence Kazakh local authorities have in the know-how of ADPi teams. A combination of glass and wood, the uniqueness of ADPi's project, is to propose a building in the shape of three yurts, traditional tents used by nomadic people in central Asia. This layout will facilitate future expansion of the terminal capacities, by adding other "yurts" to the existing ones. The new terminal will absorb the important increase in traffic recorded by the airport (23% growth in 2006), for a traffic slightly over 2 million passengers. With 32,000 sq m the building can handle, at the beginning, 1,500 passengers per hour and 2 million passengers per year. ADPi will carry out studies to eventually reach a final capacity of 6 million passengers per year. ADPi was created in 2000 as a subsidiary of Aeroports de Paris. It provides design, architecture, engineering and project management services. Aeroports de Paris builds, develops and manages airports including Paris-Orly, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Le Bourget. Aeroports de Paris is the 2nd European airport group in terms of airport turnover and the 1st European airport group in terms of cargo and mail. Aeroports de Paris accomodates nearly 460 airlines, mainly the major actors of air transport. Benefitting from an exceptional geographical location and a major trading area, the group's strategy is to modernize its terminal facilities and to upgrade its quality of service. It also intends to develop its retail and real estate business. In 2006, Aeroports de Paris Group had a turnover of 2,076 million euros, and it handled 82,5 million passengers, Kazinform cites BUSINESS WIRE.