11.2.13

Of Puducherry's new Airport Terminal....



Almost 24 years since the Puducherry airport was inaugurated in September 1989, the facility saw its new terminal launched amidst a further clamour to expand the facility. The formal inauguration of Puducherry’s new airport terminal by Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh saw the occasion turn into a crossfire of pleas and counterpleas regarding its future expansion. The airport, which can currently handle only 150 passengers at a time, requires additional land for the extension of the runway to allow larger aircraft to land.
Political rivals Puducherry chief minister N Rangasamy and Union minister of state in the PMO V Narayanasamy shared the dais at the inauguration ceremony and used the opportunity to talk funding and land for the airport’s future expansion. In a sarcastic vein, Narayanasamy exhorted the local government to try to acquire the additional land given its ‘good relationship’ with the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Rangasamy, for his part, said his government needed the assistance of the minister of state in the PMO    for ‘financial help’ for the land acquisition.
 

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