A team of revenue officials, headed by a Special Tahsildhar, is to be constituted soon to carry out the land acquisition for the expansion of the Tiruchi Airport.
The State government had recently accorded administrative sanction for acquiring about 345.62 acres of land, including wetlands, on the rear side of the airport, for the expansion project.
The Airports Authority of India had sought about 683.32 acres of land, which included about 337.70 acres of Defence land. The process of getting the Defence land is under way separately.
Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of the Airport Advisory Committee here on Saturday, P. Kumar, Member of Parliament, Tiruchi, said the district administration has written to the State government seeking approval for forming a team under a special Tahsildar and 18 staff members. “The approval for constituting the team is expected soon and the land acquisition process will then begin,” Mr. Kumar said.
A. Basheer, District Revenue Officer, who also attended the meeting, said the process of land acquisition would be completed within a year’s time from the date of constitution of the special team. He indicated that the approval for constituting the team is expected within this month.
K.Gunasekaran, Airport Director, said that the runway of the airport would be extended from 8,000 feet to 10,000 feet initially and to 12,500 feet ultimately to enable wide-bodied aircrafts to operate from the airport.
On the transfer of the Defence land, Mr. Kumar said that he would soon take up the issue with Chief Minister Edapaddi K.Palaniswami.
The runway would run across the Uyyakondan canal running on the rear side of the airport. “The runway will be built over box culverts as has been done in Chennai across a river,” he explained.
The Airport Director also disclosed that construction of a new terminal for the airport is expected to begin next year.
The new terminal building would come up adjacent to the existing building in an area of 60,723 square metres. The project, which includes the construction of a new technical block and air traffic control tower, has been sanctioned at a total estimate of ₹921 crore.
The new terminal would have a capacity to handle 750 in-bound and an equal number of out-bound passengers at any given point of time. It would have a spacious car parking area to accommodate 750 cars, 250 taxis and 10 buses.
Answering a query, Mr. Gunasekaran said the Thai AirAsia would launch its Tiruchi-Bangkok-Tiruchi service on August 12. The airline would operate four flights a week on the sector. Vayujet has planned to operate chartered services to Tirupati from Tiruchi from July 28.
