Chennai: Officials from the civil aviation ministry will on Saturday meet bureaucrats from the State government to push for the proposal of a new airport at Sriperumbudur.
The proposed airport will be built over 5,000 acres and will cost Rs. 20,000 crore, according to Airports Authority of India chairman V.P. Agrawal, who accompanied minister of state for civil aviation K.C. Venugopal when the latter inspected the new international terminal at Chennai airport on Friday.
On Saturday, joint secretary of civil aviation Anil Srivastava will meet the chief secretary and the transport secretary of the State.
Mr. Agrawal said the new terminals of the airport, built at a cost of over Rs. 2,000 crore, will soon reach saturation point and cannot take the passenger load beyond 2021. “Beyond that, there is a necessity [for a new airport]. With a passenger capacity of 60 million, it will have two parallel runways so that there are simultaneous operations. The first phase will cost around Rs. 3,000 crore which may be used to create runway, terminal and other facilities,” Mr. Agrawal said.
17/05/13 The Hindu
