Chennai:Tale of Two Airports

The Tamil Nadu government proposes to build a second airport near Sriperumbudur .It is estimated that Meenambakkam airport will not be able to handle passenger and air traffic beyond 2015 Chennai handles 10 million passengers every year, and the number is expected to go up to 22 million in 12 years This traffic can be handled only if a parallel runway and terminal are contructed .The greenfield airport is proposed to be built on 4,823 acres of land at Sunguvarchathiram near Sriperumbudur, northwest of Chennai The estimated cost of construction of the fourrunway state-of-the-art airport is Rs 3,500 cr A private consortium will build the airport; it will be offered 74% stake while state and Central governments will hold 13% each .The Civil Aviation ministry wants to complete the greenfield airport project by 2015 By 2015, the passenger and aircraft traffic at the exisiting airport in Meenambakkam is expected to get saturated A team of officials from the aviaton ministry has inspected the site identified at Sunguvarchathiram A preliminary feasibility study has been conducted on the site