The Hindu Business Line : TN: Rs 300 cr to be spent for acquiring 1,457 acres of land

WITH the Centre clearing Tamil Nadu's proposal for a new international airport for Chennai, the State Government will spend about Rs 300 crore in acquiring 1,457.5 acres of land adjacent to the existing airport.

The Government has identified the land in Manappakam, Kolapakkam and Girugambakkam, to the northwest of the airport, and hopes to shortly set in motion the process of acquiring land. It has to hand over the land free of cost to the Airports Authority of India without any encumbrances, according to official sources.

A study commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), a State Government undertaking, in 2000 had recommended a new international airport with land being acquired to the north and northwest of the existing international airport. The study had suggested a parallel runway, apron and international terminal. The existing international airport was to be used for domestic flights, whose number is expected to grow.

According to official sources, the Tamil Nadu Government preferred to follow the Karnataka model. For a new international airport, Karnataka has gone in for a special purpose vehicle to which the State Government has handed over land on lease and also given a grant of Rs 350 crore, the sources say. Tamil Nadu had initially suggested that it should also have an equity stake in the project, with the land cost being its share of the equity.

However, the proposed new international airport at Chennai is to be taken up by the Airports Authority of India, which may rope in private partners. The sources estimate that the project should cost about Rs 1,500 crore. The amendments to the Airports Authority of India Act, 2003, pave the way for joint ventures to take up airport modernisation.

Official sources say that a new airport will give a further boost to Chennai as an investment destination. They point out that the US Consulate General in Chennai issues about 150,000 visas a year, which works out to about 1,200 visas a working day — enough to fill three Boeing 747s.

With Nokia deciding to set up its mobile handset manufacturing facility outside Chennai and other foreign investments in the pipeline, the sources said a new international airport had become an absolute necessity.

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