Residents seethe as AAI delays feasibility study for new airport

Residents seethe as AAI delays feasibility study for new airport

V Ayyappan TNN Chennai: Uncertainty continues for residents whose property is stuck in the airport expansion tangle as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is hesitant about dropping the proposed parallel runway project for the existing airport. The AAI has also delayed a planned International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) study on the feasibility of a second airport at Sriperumbudur by over eight months.

For over 2,000 families in Manapakkam, Gerugambakkam, Kolapakkam, Tarapakkam and Kovur, a nod for the greenfield airport (now called a second airport because the state government wants two functioning airports) means their land — otherwise marked for acquisition for expansion of the existing airport — would be saved. But residents are furious that the AAI hasn’t started the study yet.

“All along we assumed the ICAO study was on and the report on the new airport will come at any time. Now, AAI’s declaration that the study is yet to start is a shock,” said G Mohan Kumar, who has bought a house in EVP Township in Tarapakkam.

“Ninety per cent of my house was completed when the state government marked the land for acquisition two years ago. But the bank is putting pressure on us to pay up the instalments,” said Somasekharan, another resident.

“All of us recently sent over 800 telegrams to the state government and asked for an appointment to meet the chief minister. But we have got no response,” he added.

The residents, who were on the verge of launching a massive protest to get their land denotified, had remained quiet because the AAI had promised that they would ask ICAO to do a feasibility study for Sriperumbudur airport eight months ago.

But the study did not start because “ICAO is asking huge money to start the survey. But we will be signing an agreement with them very soon,” said AAI chairman V P Agrawal. If the organisation had started its study as planned, the final report would have been ready last month.

“Though AAI has studied the location and found that an airport can be constructed in Sriperumbudur, ICAO should study the location because it is less than 150 km from the existing Chennai airport,” said a senior AAI official.

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