CHENNAI, Sept 16: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged the Union Government to take up a new international airport of world class standard at Chennai.

The Chief Minister also requested the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas to help Tamil Nadu for establishing Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal at Ennore near the City.

In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister said the state government would undertake the land acquisition on payment of cost to provide the land for airport facility. This had already been indicated to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, she added.

Stating that Chennai City, the eastern gateway to the world, was a major hub with flights to all parts of the world, she said though the modernisation of both the Kamaraj Domestic Terminal and Anna International Terminal had been up, the facilities available were not of world class.

Chennai is also a major centre and its traffic potential is most encouraging, she explained.

Chief Minister said Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) had already commissioned UK-based M/s Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick to prepare a report on modernisation.

The report had favoured the construction of a new world class international airport at Chennai. For this privately owned land was to be acquired to the extent of about 1000 hectares. The report is currently with the Union Government, she said.

LNG TERMINAL: She said Tamil Nadu, a leading manufacturing state had a major demand for energy and feed stock for downstream processing, which could be met only by natural gas.

Discussions have been held with ONGC to establish a 2.5 million or 5 million tonnes per annum capacity terminal at Ennore. Likewise, discussions have also been held with M/s GAIL on establishing it. The Indian Oil Corporation has also expressed interest in establishing the terminal, she pointed out.

She urged the Petroleum Ministry to take up the issue so that an LNG Terminal together with associated power plants and other downstream consumption grids could be taken up urgently.

DESALINATION PLANT: Chief Minister said the Union Government should provide special financial assistance to Tamil Nadu to set up a desalination plant to meet 300 million litres per day (MLD).

She said while the state government had made superhuman effort to tackle the current water crisis, desalination was the only real solution to the predicament the City was in.

Chief Minister explained that while all sources of water supply to Chennai depend on North East monsoon, it was becoming extremely difficult to find a proper technical solution to Chennais water requirements, which amounted to 840 MLD a day.

But the supply is barely 205 MLD and Chennai has to depend only on lorry water supply. This is an extremely serious issue, she said.

Stating that Chennai was facing the worst water crisis, she said but for the New Veeranam Project evacuation would have been a near possibility.

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