Tamil Nadu allots land for new Chennai airport

Special Correspondent

Ensure project is expedited, Jayalalithaa tells Manmohan

CHENNAI: Following the Centre's clearance for the new international airport for Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Government has made available 1457.5 acres of land free of cost to the north of the existing airport.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said the land would be made available free from all encumbrances. The Prime Minister and the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel, should ensure that the project was implemented quickly, she said. This would enable the fulfilment of a long-felt need of Chennai City, she added.

Mr. Patel, in a letter dated April 21, 2005, had informed that the Prime Minister had given approval for the project based on the memorandum presented to him by the Chief Minister on September 16, 2004. He had indicated that additional land to the extent of 1457.5 acres on the northern side of the existing Chennai Airport would have to be made available to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) free of cost and free from all encumbrances.

The State Government decided to accept the request in view of the importance of this project and the need to implement it quickly. In the memorandum, the Chief Minister had brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the plans announced by the Government of India for development of world-class airports at New Delhi and Mumbai and had insisted that the Chennai airport should also be taken up for similar development, based on the report commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).

The Chief Minister had pointed out that the study by the consultants Messrs. Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick of the United Kingdom had recommended the construction of a new world-class international airport at Chennai. She had also brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that the consultants had indicated the need to acquire land to establish this new international airport and that the Government of Tamil Nadu would take up the acquisition of the land once the approval was given.

In letters addressed to the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had accorded the highest priority to firmly establishing Chennai's position as India's eastern gateway to the world. The Chennai Infrastructure Development Plan and the "Chennai Forever" Campaign that she had launched were re-establishing Chennai's status as the premier metro city of the South. With several new foreign direct investments taking place in the Chennai area, she had been particularly keen to ensure that the infrastructure in Chennai became world-class.

She had indicated that the new international airport project for Chennai, for which clearance has now been accorded, would go a long way in establishing world-class infrastructure, an official press release added.

The new Chennai airport will come up in the villages of Gerugampakkam, Kollapakkam, and Manapakkam situated on the north-western side of the existing airport in Kancheepuram district.

The cost of the land, being provided free, is about Rs. 300 crores, according to sources in the TIDCO.

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Tamil Nadu proposes a new airport at Tambaram

T.S. Shankar
and S. Vydhianathan

T.S. Shankar

and S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has sought the technical expertise of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for setting up a new international airport on a 2,000-acre site off Tambaram in Chennai.

The State Government has approached the Civil Aviation Ministry as the Anna International Terminal (AIT) is congested due to "bunching of flights."

"AAI's Planning Department will examine the Tamil Nadu Government's proposal before taking up detailed drawings as sought by the Government". A final decision on the exact location of the airport will be taken later, highly-placed AAI sources said.

The AIT is now being served by 16 international carriers including the two national carriers. Delta Airlines of the United States will start its direct operations out of Chennai from May 11.

The new initiative, according to Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation sources, has been necessitated by Tamil Nadu emerging as the favoured destination of IT companies and automobile units. The AAI has projected a 9.6 per cent growth in passenger traffic in Chennai for the next year.

New arrival module

According to the AAI sources, the not-in-use departure area of the Anna terminal will be converted into a new arrival module, thereby creating an additional 10,000-sqm concourse area to ease congestion especially during "bunching of flights."

The Rs. 22.48-crore modification project is expected to be completed within the next 12 months.

The Kamaraj Domestic Terminal now handles 5.05 lakh passengers. With several new entrants such as Kingfisher, Royal Airlines, Go and SpiceJet set to launch their operations and Air Deccan planning expansion, the existing terminal may be inadequate to cope with the traffic.

Many foreign carriers are looking at the Chennai airport to launch non-stop services and the existing operators have applied for increasing frequencies.

"If the current trend of growth continues, Chennai will become the most sought-after gateway, given its proximity to South-East Asia and because it is relatively less congested compared to Mumbai and New Delhi," the soucres said.

Austrian Airlines also expressed a keen interest in starting services to Chennai.

In principle approval

The Prime Minister has accorded in principle approval to the Civil Aviation Ministry to initiate modernisation of the Chennai airport on a par with the New Delhi and Mumbai airports and to take up expansion of the Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore airports.

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