Airports Authority of India (AAI) has informed to the state government of Tamil Nadu that it was ready to build a second airport for Chennai, located at Sriperumbudur, provided 5,000 acres of land was made available for the purpose.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has absolved the new airport project in its feasibleness study before.


The Airports Authority of India chairman VP Agrawal delivered ICAO's describe to chief secretary Debendranath Sarangi on Saturday. Agrawal said, "We have asked for 5,000 acres of land which will be required to construct the new airport. In the first stage, runways and other facilities will be constructed. Around Rs5,000 crore will be needed for the project".


The civil aviation ministry had earlier announced that the construction of the new airport would not be delivered to the private sector.

According to AAI sources, the government would now make a decision whether to construct a new airport or to construct a parallel runway at the existing airport.

With ability at the existing airport reaching saturation point, the AAI had at first suggested the construction of a parallel runway. However, it was realized that the cost of land acquisition would be prohibitively high.

So, new airport was advised and the previous DMK government identified land at Sriperumbudur for the new project. An AAI study set up the land suitable for the project.

The AAI has assured the state government that on-going expansion works at the existing airport would be accomplished as per the new schedule.

The new domestic terminal would be prepared by December this year while the international terminal would be commissioned by January 2012.