Plans afoot for new Airport in Chennai

Ensuring smooth operations of the air traffic in the area, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to set up a second airport in Chennai, said AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra. To open a new domestic cargo terminal at Chennai airport, the state government was yet to identify land for a second airport and had told AAI officials that it would be expensive to acquire land in the southern suburbs. The AAI would do a quick obstacle survey and plan to clear the land selected by the government so that processes needed to set up an airport. Once a site is identified, AAI will conduct a study and then International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be roped in to conduct a feasibility study that will include flight safety, flight path and approach path of planes and the presence of a second airport in the same city.