Issues relating to expansion and modernisation of Chennai airport, and the delay in completing the first phase of the modernisation project, will be discussed at a high-level meeting here next Thursday. Top officials of the State government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) headquarters are expected to attend the meeting.
According to AAI sources in New Delhi, with a new government taking over in Tamil Nadu, the issue of airport expansion and modernisation have come to the fore.
The Rs.2,000-crore expansion project, considered important for the State's infrastructure development, has been delayed owing to various reasons. The State government is expected to press the AAI to expedite the project, which includes construction of new domestic and international terminal buildings and expansion of the secondary runway and the international cargo complex.
The AAI will raise with the State government its additional land requirements for the ongoing works and discuss the possibility of acquiring land that has already been identified for constructing a parallel runway near the existing airport, according to the sources.
The meeting will also discuss the proposed second airport at Sriperumbudur, for which the International Civil Aviation Organisation has completed a feasibility study and submitted a report to the AAI. Apart from these issues, the development of airports in Coimbatore and Madurai and according international status for the Coimbatore airport will also be discussed.
Neighbouring Kerala has three international airports – Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode – whereas Tamil Nadu has just only one with the others being Customs-notified airports, the sources point out.
During her previous tenure (2001-06), Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to the then Prime Minister informing him that the State government would allocate 1,457 acres free to develop and modernise the Chennai airport to international standards.
