Airport expansion work hinges on fund allocation for landowners.

The first meeting of the re-constituted Madurai Airport Advisory Committee has resolved to appeal to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for early acquisition and handing over of 615 acres of land for airport expansion.

The panel, headed by its chairman and Lok Sabha Member of Virudhunagar Parliamentary constituency T. Radhakrishnan and vice-chairman M. Muthuramalingam, Tirumangalam MLA, met at the airport recently. Airport Director Kuldeep Singh Rishi and other members took part in the meeting.

During the discussion on land acquisition, Mr. Rishi explained steps taken by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) in the past seven years. He said that Collector L. Subramanian had informed the AAI that the land acquisition process was at an advanced stage. “Valuation of land, buildings, trees and wells in the proposed lands to be acquired was over. Only allocation of funds to pay compensation to the landowners is required now,” he said.

Stating that as a matter of policy AAI never paid for land acquisition, he said that only when the runway was extended from the existing 7,500 feet to 12,000 feet, the airport would be able to tap the potential of international connectivity.

THE HINDU