410 acres acquired for Thoothukudi airport runway expansion

THOOTHUKUDI

The district administration has so far acquired 410.85 acres of the 600.93 acres of land to be acquired for Thoothukudi airport runway expansion and planned to take over the remaining 190.08 acres within a month.

After handing over 44.61 acres of land to Airports Authority of India (AAI), represented by N. Subramanian, Director of Thoothukudi Airport, on Wednesday, taking the total extent of land handed over so far to 410.85 acres, Collector N. Venkatesh said the land acquisition exercise, which had been divided into 13 blocks, had been completed in eight blocks.

After the State government allocated ₹9 crore in the budget for land acquisition, landowners were compensated as per the new Land Acquisition Act, 2013.

Thanking the district administration and the Tamil Nadu government for expediting the process, Mr. Subramanian said the AAI would soon start expansion work on both sides of the existing runway as 68% of the land required for the project had been acquired. “The expanded runway will be 2,500 metres long and 45 metres wide, capable of handling even A320 aircraft. Tenders for constructing boundary walls around the extended runway have been floated,” he said.

Construction of airport terminal building, control tower, fire station and other facilities would commence after the land acquisition was completed.

“The new-look airport with extended runway will be ready for operation by 2020. The airport, having a good passenger potential, is likely to get Indigo’s service to and from Chennai from June in addition to SpiceJet’s two daily services as it was holding talks with the AAI and conducting a feasibility study,” Mr. Subramanian said.

Indian Oil Corporation has planned to open its fuel station at the airport before June-end, which will ensure refuelling facility for aircraft.