Defence land denied for Chennai Airport expansion 

CHENNAI: The Chennai Airport modernisation plan will have to be restricted between 110 and 125 acres as defence land has been denied to the Airport Authority of India for the second phase of the modernisation of the Airport.

Airport director G Chandramouli said that the AAI required 150 acres for expansion plans, but now it has been reduced as they could not get access to defence land. The Chennai Airport initially sought 200 acres and later restricted the need to 150 acres, of which 40 acres is land belonging to the Officers Training Academy. The airport director said that talks were going on to acquire the land for expansion project.

He said that Larsen & Toubro (L&T) would construct the two new terminals as part of the phase II modernisation project. The construction of the terminals will begin after the old terminals are pulled down. The work will also include reconstruction of airside corridor for seamless integration and interfacing provision in the new terminal. The `2,476-crore modernisation project had already got the approval of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs. The work for 3.36 lakh sq m integrated terminal is expected to be completed by 2021.

Meanwhile, there has been no progress in identification of site for the second airport. The State government has identified Gumidipoondi, Madurantakam, Uttramerur and Sriperumbudur as possible sites and AAI officials who have surveyed the four sites have yet to get back.