Land acquisition process for expansion of Madurai airport would be completed within two weeks and all efforts would be made to declare it as an international terminal by the end of next year, said Finance Minister P. T. R. P. Thiagarajan.
He was talking to reporters after discussing land acquisition and other airport-related issues with Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration P. Moorthy, Collector S Aneesh Sekhar and Airport Director S. Senthil Valavan.
Stating that 90% of the 620 acres meant for airport expansion had been acquired, Mr. Thiagarajan said that the final work pending with the State Department of Finance would be cleared soon. “Chief Minister M. K. Stalin has cleared the issue after we took up it with him for expeditious processing of land acquisition for airport development,” he added.
The Airports Authority of India has proposed to increase the length of the runway from the existing 2,300 metres to 3,800 metres so that wide-bodied aircraft could be handled. Besides, it has also decided to construct a new Air Traffic Control –cum-technical block, on the land to be acquired, at a cost of ₹100 crore. “Handing over of land will help the AAI start the expansion work immediately,” the Collector said.
Underpass
The Ministers had asked State Highways Department to expedite the work on preparing a detailed project report for the underpass to be constructed on the Inner Ring Road to enable extension of the runway over it.
The Ministers plan to take up the issue of announcing Madurai airport as international terminal with Union Civil Aviation Minister. “While Coimbatore and Tiruchi airports enjoy the status of international airport, we are seeking the same for Madurai for the development of southern districts,” he said.
Once the airport expansion works were completed, Madurai airport could not be denied the international terminal status. Besides, the very fact that repatriation flights were operated from several countries to Madurai during the lockdown only proved that Madurai airport had good demand for international flights on more routes, he added.
