In response to a question from Dr. Pon Gautham Sigamani, Member of Parliament representing the Kallakurichi Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu, the government has given details of the acreage of land which is yet to be transferred for the purpose of expansion of airports in Tamil Nadu.
As per NCAP, 2016, the responsibility to provide land free of cost and free from any encumbrances rests with the State Government.In case of airports in Tamil Nadu, the land needed for expansion of airport belongs to Government of Tamil Nadu, private parties as well as defence land.
At Chennai, the largest airport in Tamil Nadu and one of the top six airports in the country, 64.93 acres of land is not yet handed over. At Coimbatore, the land bank which is not handed over is highest at 627.89 acres. At Vellore and Salem, which aren’t operational – land measuring 441 and 446 acres respectively needs to be handed over. At Tiruchirappalli – one of the few airports in the country where International traffic exceeds domestic, 471.48 acre of land is not yet handed over for expansion. Madurai has 89.76 acres and Tuticorin has 96.77 acres of land pending handing over.
Not all of this is with private parties or the government of Tamil Nadu. At Chennai, 21.2 acres of land is marked as defence land, while it is 148.39 acre and 166.97 acre at Coimbatore and Trichy respectively.
In November 2021, the Government of Tamil Nadu had agreed that all the defence land needed for Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappali shall be compensated by the state government. In January this year, the state government informed that working permission has been granted to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the defence lands required by AAI near these three airports. However, this permission is subject to the condition that the state government will provide suitable equal value land (EVL) to the MoD in exchange and the state government wants this land to be provided for free since both MoD and AAI are entities of the Government of India.
The government has stated that upgradation and modernisation of airports, including those in Tamil Nadu is a continuous process. All the airports in Tamil Nadu are operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the state owned organisation has been involved in upgrading passenger terminals, building new ones, constructing ATC tower and technical blocks, runway resurfacing and extensions, creating additional bays and other infrastructural improvements.
Tail note
By passenger footfalls at a state level in India, Tamil Nadu handles the fourth largest traffic. It is important that airports in the state expand as the state has established itself as a manufacturing hub, especially in the automobile sector. Yet there remains a challenge for adding flights since new and newly expanded airports have remained out of Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with countries, while Indian carriers have not been able to add capacity from non-metro airports.
State Government of Tamil Nadu has submitted an application to Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for grant of first stage clearance i.e. ‘Site-Clearance’ for development of a Greenfield airport at Parandur, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu. As per GFA Policy, the proposal has been sent to Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) for their comments. After completion of this
consultation with stakeholders, the proposal is required to be placed before the Steering Committee on Greenfield Airports for their recommendation, with respect to award of Site Clearance.
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.
For advertising opportunities, get in touch via the Contact us page