Sriperumbudur airport may not take off

Chennai: The much-expected second airport at Sriperumbudur may not take off as both the Centre and the state government are preparing to shelve the project.
Even as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has undertaken a techno-economic feasibility study of the project, a senior official in the Union civil aviation ministry said that the government is convinced that there is no urgent need for a second airport in the city, as the existing airport at Meenambakkam is being expanded.
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is spending Rs 3,800 crore on the expansion works including construction of a new terminal and laying of a secondary runway, which are expected to be completed by April 2011. Confirming the development, sources in the state government pointed out that many major cities across the world were operating with one airport and the present air traffic in the city could not justify a second airport.
As per the condition for setting up the second airport, the state government has to acquire about 5,000 acres of land and hand it over to the AAI free of cost. "It may entail expenditure between Rs 2,500 and Rs 5,000 crore which the state government may not be ready to shell out," the sources added. The officials also argued that if private operators had to be brought in, the existing airport should be closed down as in the case of Bangalore and Hyderabad.
27/02/10 Ajitha Karthikeyan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Feb 2010