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Chennai airport needs parallel runway: Ashok Gajapathi Raju

The aviation sector, he said, was a Government of India subject, but land is a state government subject.

Chennai: Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that Chennai airport is in need of a new modern parallel runway in order to witness growth in the aviation sector and that the Centre is willing to partner with the State government to ensure this development. Speaking to reporters at the airport here on Sunday, the Minister said there is a plan to connect the domestic and international terminals to meet the increasing demand of the passengers.

“This is essentially, an old cross runway (airport)... So, it has a limited capacity... It is not like a modern parallel runway airport, something like in Mumbai,” Mr Raju said.

The aviation sector, he said, was a Government of India subject, but land is a state government subject. “So, the Government of India and State government has to partner for expansion of the airport,” he said and in a lighter vein remarked, “So, without land, an aircraft cannot land, You cannot take off (also).”

Last month, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha had said that the annual passenger traffic at the Chennai airport was set to increase from current 20 million to 35 million in the coming years.

The Centre was working on a plan for a greenfield airport in Chennai for which around 2,000 acres of land has to be provided by the Tamil Nadu government, he had said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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