Tiruchi:A strong pitch is proposed to be made on a slew of issues connected with Tiruchi international airport by travel and trade industry during the two-day visit of the Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathy Raju here.
Being the maiden visit to the city, Mr. Raju is scheduled to hold meetings with different stakeholders starting Friday. His visit comes at a time when Tiruchi, a unique airport with more foreign operations than domestic, has been witnessing an upswing in passenger and freight movements owing to steady increase in number of overseas flights over the years.
Nevertheless, there have been certain key issues that have been pending for long notwithstanding several rounds of official discussions and repeated representations and demands from public welfare bodies. One of the major issues hanging fire for long is the expansion of the runway that would eventually pave the way for operation of wide-bodied aircrafts from and to this fast growing non-metro airport.
The runway expansion requires 510.30 acres of land of which over 160 acres belongs to the defence. Although the defence ministry had accorded “in-principle” approval for providing about 168.4 acres of its land adjoining the airport, it had sought alternative land of equal value in exchange. Despite several rounds of meetings involving the district administration, runway expansion work is yet to take off.
08/01/16 R. Rajaram/The Hindu
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Being the maiden visit to the city, Mr. Raju is scheduled to hold meetings with different stakeholders starting Friday. His visit comes at a time when Tiruchi, a unique airport with more foreign operations than domestic, has been witnessing an upswing in passenger and freight movements owing to steady increase in number of overseas flights over the years.
Nevertheless, there have been certain key issues that have been pending for long notwithstanding several rounds of official discussions and repeated representations and demands from public welfare bodies. One of the major issues hanging fire for long is the expansion of the runway that would eventually pave the way for operation of wide-bodied aircrafts from and to this fast growing non-metro airport.
The runway expansion requires 510.30 acres of land of which over 160 acres belongs to the defence. Although the defence ministry had accorded “in-principle” approval for providing about 168.4 acres of its land adjoining the airport, it had sought alternative land of equal value in exchange. Despite several rounds of meetings involving the district administration, runway expansion work is yet to take off.
08/01/16 R. Rajaram/The Hindu
