CHENNAI: The Rs 2700-crore expansion project of the Chennai airport will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony in January, 2008.A parallel runway, to be connected to the secondary runway by means of a taxi way, will be constructed along with a new integrated terminal building, to make the existing airport capable of handling passenger and air traffic till 2016, said K N Shrivastava, joint secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
“Once the construction work begins, the project can be completed in 24 months. The new integrated terminal building with departure on the first floor and arrival on the ground floor will come up on the right side of the existing airport. Rs 1700 crore has been earmarked for the construction of the runway while Rs 1000 crore for the terminal building,’’ said Shrivastava.
He was part of a team of high-level officials which, on Friday, visited the identified site for the expansion of the existing airport at Sriperumbudur, where the Greenfield airport is proposed to be constructed.
The members of the team included Ashok Chawla, secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, K Ramalingam, chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Dinesh Kumar, director, Chennai Airport and Kancheepuram District Collector Pradeep Yadav.
“Everything has been finalized on the part of the AAI, which also handed over the land plan schedule to the district administration for the land acquisition almost a month ago,’’ he noted.
“As a rule there will not be any deviation from the land plan, submitted by the AAI. Architects have been appointed and a technical team has studied the project,’’ Shrivastava added.
He also said that the question of technical non-feasibility did not arise, even though the Adyar river flowed across the land identified for the expansion of the existing airport.
“There are several precedents of runways being built on bridges. Mumbai and London are examples,’’ he pointed out.
Greenfield airportAirport at Sriperumbudur will come up opposite the Saint Gobain factory, said K Ramalingam, chairman, AAI. Although the land had been identified, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the AAI had requested the simultaneous development of road and rail connectivity to the site, which had been included in the project proposal, he added.
K N Shrivastava, joint secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that the Greenfield airport would be developed in time to meet the growth in passenger and air traffic that is expected to exceed the capacity of the existing airport in the future.
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The government has recently constructed a number of stop dams on adyar river, in manapakkam area for conservation of water. A lot of money has gone in to it. Will it not have any impact on the land proposed for airport expansion.
India is the only country where plans change abruptly, probably due to vote politics. House construction was permitted in manapakkam area as recently as six months back. What circumstances have changed to demolish these houses, except poor planning and petty politics.
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