Give 5,000 acres for new airport, says AAI

Give 5,000 acres for new airport, says AAI

CHENNAI: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has informed the state government that it is ready to construct a second airport for Chennai in Sriperumbudur provided 5,000 acres of land are made available for the purpose. Earlier, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had given its green signal for the new airport project in its feasibility study. AAI chairman V P Agrawal handed over ICAO's report to chief secretary Debendranath Sarangi on Saturday. "We have asked for 5,000 acres of land which will be needed to construct the new airport. In the first phase, runways and other facilities will be constructed. Around Rs 5,000 crore will be needed for the project," Agrawal said.

The civil aviation ministry had earlier announced that the new airport would not be handed over to the private sector. AAI sources said that the government would now decide whether to construct a new airport or to build a parallel runway at the existing airport. As the existing airport is getting saturated, AAI proposed to construct a parallel runway. However, it was soon found out that the cost of land acquistion would be high. So, a new airport was proposed and the DMK government identified land at Sriperumbudur over three years ago for the project and informed the union ministry. AAI conducted a study and found that an airport can be built at the land earmarked for the project by the then state government. Agrawal also assured the state government that the ongoing expansion works at the existing airport would be completed as per the new schedule. The new domestic terminal would be ready by December this year while the international terminal would be commissioned by January 2012, he added.

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