Hosur airport: 2,900 acres to be acquired from 12 villages

Chennai: About 3,000 acres of land, including 800 acres owned by the government, in 12 villages in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district are likely to be acquired for the building of an airport in Hosur, the rapidly growing industrial city located very close to Bengaluru. 

The move comes after the state government chose the Hosur-Berigai-Bagalur-Shoolagiri quadrilateral to house the airport, being planned to handle about 3 crore passengers annually.

The government last month floated a tender to select a consultant to prepare a Detailed Techno-Economic Report (DTER) for developing the airport, besides approaching the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for site clearance. 

A detailed Land Development Plan (LDP) derived by the Krishnagiri district administration has estimated that the government-owned land parcels in the region amount to 845 acres.

“The plan says 2,134 acres of private land, including agricultural land, have to be acquired for the airport. In total, 2,979 acres are to be acquired for the project,” a source in the know told DH.

Of the 12 villages from where land is likely to be acquired, 10 are located in the Hosur taluk and the remaining are in the Shoolagiri taluk.

The villages likely to host the airport are Balavanapalli, Muthali, Adavanapalli, Dasapalli, Pedha Muthali, Attoor, Alenatham, Kaarupalli, Nandimangalam, Soodukondapalli, Midudepalli, and Venkatesapuram. 

“The LDP was sent to the commissioner of Land Administration for his perusal. He has asked a few questions, and the plan has been sent back to the Krishnagiri collector for his response. We hope to hear from him soon,” said the aforementioned source. 

Once the LDP is approved, it will be sent to various departments for administrative sanction, following which a Government Order (GO) will be issued.

“Once the GO is published, we will start acquiring land. We hope to complete the process by February, but it depends on how fast we get the approvals,” said another source. 

The chosen location for the airport — Berigai-Bagalur — is close to the Tamil Nadu section of the Bengaluru Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR). Besides passenger traffic, the government believes the new airport will attract freight traffic, given that Hosur houses over 500 industries and about 3,000 MSME units. 

Though no airport can be built within 150 km of the Bengaluru International Airport till 2033, the state government believes it can either work out a deal to get an exemption or operationalise the project after the concessionaire agreement ends. 

Tamil Nadu also needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) due to the concessionaire agreement.

Interestingly, Fairfax Financial Holdings, the majority stakeholder of BIAL, has shown interest in the Hosur and Chennai airports, with the company’s Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa discussing the issue with Chief Minister M K Stalin in April.