Pondicherry airport expansion grounded

Puducherry: The air connectivity to Puducherry could become a distant dream, as bottlenecks threaten to bog the runway expansion project of Puducherry Airport that got underway at Lawspet recently.
The present runway length of 1.2 km is being extended by 1.5 km in the first phase of the project and to make it suitable for operation of ATR 72 flights.
However, for the additional runway, earth-filling to a depth of 6 to 10 metres is required. Moreover, three sewer lines which cross the runway are an obstacle in the expansion.
Since the territorial administration is reluctant to remove the sewer lines, they have decided to address the problem by constructing a culvert over it, sources told this website's newspaper.
So far, no work has been initiated by the government to construct the culvert. Worse, with the garbage dumping yard close to the runway, the runway doubles as a road to the dumping yard.
Another bottleneck is the samadhi of a swami and his ashram adjoining the runway site.
People of the area who frequent the ashram are against the removal of the ashram to an alternative site.
01/07/08 Debjani Dutta/Newindpress

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Categories: Airports Jul 2008