New greenfield airport to be set up near Chennai

Chennai, May 22 (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today announced the setting up of a new greenfield airport at Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur taluks, apart from the expansion of the existing airport at Meenambakkam.

The expansion of the existing airport would be taken up at Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Kerugambakkam and Tharapakkam in Sriperumbudur taluk, Karunanidhi told reporters here today after a resolution to this effect was adopted at a meeting of the legislative party leaders held at the Secretariat.

While the greenfield airport would come up on 4,820.66 acres, expansion of Chennai airport would be done on 1,069.99 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore, he said.

Karunanidhi said that the work for both the expansion and the greenfield airports would be entrusted to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The government would provide suitable compensation to 947 households in these areas and also rehabilitation to them.

The rehabilitation would be done in the first phase of the expansion work itself, he said.

The Chief Minister said all the parties, including the PMK, MDMK and the DMDK had supported the resolution. However, the opposition AIADMK did not support the resolution.

D Jayakumar, who represented the AIADMK at the meeting, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister "to reconsider the proposal as people in certain places have raised objections to the project."

Karunanidhi said land acquisition was estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore. The construction would need an investment of another Rs 1,000 crore, he said.

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