Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Sunday said the Tamil Nadu government has agreed to part with land for expanding the runway of Puducherry Airport.
Addressing a press conference here, he said the Tamil Nadu government had initiated the process to acquire the land on its side for expanding the runway so as to operate wide-bodied aircraft from here. The Chief Secretaries are working out the modalities of land acquisition, he said. Around 150 acres of land were required to expand the runway to operate bigger aircraft. While the territorial administration has to incur the expenditure required to acquire the land, the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation would construct the runway, he said.
The widening of the runway would enable international flight operators, especially those operating services to France, to start operating from here, he said. He expressed optimism of renewing domestic flight operations from here to Bengaluru via Tiruchi.
Mr Narayanasamy said he would meet Union Finance Ministry officials on Tuesday to press for allocation of ₹1,000 crore sought by the territorial administration as budgetary support. “The Home Ministry has cleared the file and it is now pending with the expenditure wing of the Finance Ministry,” he said. The Chief Minister said he would attend the pre-budgetary discussion convened by Finance Ministry Arun Jaitley on Wednesday.
