New airport @ Sriperumbudur

The TN government included the Sriperumbudur airport in its Vision 2020 document and set aside Rs 25,000 crore for developing airports in the state. A large share of the money will be for land acquisition. Agrawal said the second airport in Chennai would be a necessity. “We understand that the government is keen on the project and will find all possible solutions to clear the hurdles that once delayed the project,” he said. The AAI has started planning the pattern in which traffic should be shared between the two airports. 
 Sources, however, said it was too early to decide whether the new airport would be used exclusively for international flights or domestic flights. The entire land needed has been marked for acquisition but the airport “will evolve depending on the demand for capacity addition. We plan to build a runway and a terminal building and add more runways and buildings based on the traffic. At the end of the final phase, it will have four runways,” said an official.  The new airport, as per current plans, is likely to be used to handle cargo flights and spillover traffic from the international airport. At Chennai airport, export cargo is growing at more than 25% per year and import cargo by 7-8% a year — faster than at airports in other metros. 
 “After the new terminal opens, Chennai airport will be able to handle four million passengers a year and will handle eight million passengers a year after the existing one is renovated and merged with the new one. But there will be a capacity crunch if renovation is delayed. The new terminal was delayed by nearly a year,” said a foreign airline official.