Parandur, Pannur, Tiruporur and Padalam are the four new potential sites that the State government has identified for the second airport for the city, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has said.
While responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said: “The Government of India has formulated the greenfield policy for construction of greenfield airport, for which the State government/airport operator has to identify site(s) and get the feasibility study conducted for construction of airport. The application is then sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in the prescribed format for site clearance and in-principle approval by the steering committee.”
Tiruporur will be the closest from the existing Chennai airport in Tirusoolam and the travel time is about a little over an hour while it takes nearly an hour-and-a-half to commute from the present airport to Pannur and Padalam, Parandur will be the farthest and it will be a two-hour journey from Tirusoolam.
Before the pandemic, the city airport grappled with severe bottlenecks as the terminals couldn’t handle the traffic, with passengers bearing the brunt of it. There was no end in sight for finalising a site for the second airport too as the possible sites were considered and there was no decision taken. Now, sources said, the State government has informed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to soon delegate a team of officials for inspecting these sites and carry out a feasibility study. This study is done to know whether a specific site will have sufficient space for establishing all the infrastructure needed for the new airport and also to make sure there was no interference with the Tambaram Air Force traffic or has any other obstructions, sources said.
The Minister spoke about various expansion works that were now taken up at Chennai airport.
