Plea to denotify airport project

Chennai, July 25: As the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI’s) decision to shelve the parallel runway project gives a little relief for residents, thousands of families affected by the project from the Manapakkam, Kollapa-kkam, Gerugambakkam and Tharapakkam (EVP Town) areas are still waiting for de-notification of the project.

As part of the major Chennai airport expansion project, the state government has notified 939 acres in the area for AAI to construct a parallel runway. But the project got delayed for more than a year due to various reasons.

“Though residents are happy with the AAI decision to hold up the project, still we are demanding the de-notification of the parallel runway project and the government should go for a second airport project at Sriperumbudur,” said Brindha Brighton, secretary of the United People’s Forum for Survival, a forum of 5,000 people going to be affected by the Chennai airport expansion project.

“Earlier, the state chief secretary had assured the completion of feasibility study of the second airport coordinated by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) by July 2009. But AAI is yet to start its preliminary work. We demand the commissioning and completion of the study as early as possible and also thousands of families in our area expect a favourable decision from state government by de-notifying the project,” she added.

The project would take away 947 dwelling houses, 250 semi-constructed houses, 2,000 approved plots, an international school with 2,000 students, more than 500 acres of agricultural land and several small-scale industries. Besides, environmentalists point to major threats to the ecology and chances of flooding. Environmentalist and researcher Nityanand Jayaraman said AAI’s decision would give temporary relief to the residents, and added that the project that affects the lives of thousands of people should be de-notified.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/plea-denotify-airport-project-138