A year after completion of work, the extended secondary runway, a portion of which runs over a bridge across the Adyar, is yet to be functional.
The runway is expected to help meet the increasing air traffic that Chennai airport handles but to date, nobody seems to have a clue when it will be opened.
A note from Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA U.O. Note No. R1/1363/2006) circulated among local bodies in 2006 spoke of a land plan schedule for areas to be ‘covered under the proposed airport restructuring and modernisation’ project.
The proposal included, among other things, creation of a new runway parallel to the existing one and diagonal to the secondary runway, and also re-routing a sizeable length of the Adyar river to make way for the same.
22/12/12 K. Manikandan/The Hindu
