Centre gives same old reply to query on 2nd city airport

Centre gives same old reply to query on 2nd city airport

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:10.12.2021

The ministry of civil aviation continued to present more or less the same old answer regarding the proposed second airport for Chennai in Parliament without any actual updated on the status of the project.

Though the erstwhile AIADMK government identified new locations for the second airport, the ministry in July 2021 replied that two sites were identified.

The reply presented on December 6, in response to DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson, says that four sites are identified.

No reply talks about the Union government including the Sriperumbudur site in the National Infrastructure Pipeline.

“The state government of Tamil Nadu has identified four potential sites for development of a second airport in Chennai and has requested AAI to inspect these sites and prepare the feasibility study report,” the reply presented on December 6 said.

However, AAI has conducted preliminary study for these sites and also completed feasibility report for the site at Sriperumbudur.

The response presented in Parliament does not mention if the current DMK government has given approval for any of these locations for a new airport.

In an answer presented in Parliament in July 2021, the ministry of civil aviation said, “State government in November 2019 identified two locations of Mamandur and Parandur. However, they are yet to finalize the site for setting up of the second airport near Chennai.”

Wilson said repeating the same set of answers shows that the ministry is not interested in developing a new airport in Chennai.

The AIADMK government did not show interest in building an airport in Sriperumbudur and new locations were identified after a delay of nine years. But it was at the end of the term.

In July, the civil aviation ministry said two sites were identified. On December 6, it responded to DMK Rajya Sabha member P Wilson saying four sites were identified