Second airport for Chennai: Four locations suggested

Preliminary work on the location for a second airport for Chennai has begun with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) inspecting four potential sites identified by the Tamil Nadu government for setting up a greenfield facility.

The new airport will function in addition to the existing facility in Meenambakkam, located close to the city, state government officials said. They added that four places – Tirupporur, Parandur, Pannur, Padalam – have been suggested for Chennai’s second airport to the AAI by the Tamil Nadu government.

Though the number of flights and the daily footfall have increased manifold over the years, the city is bereft of a swanky airport like the ones Bengaluru and Hyderabad boast off. The AAI has been expanding the terminal buildings in the existing airport to cater to the ever-increasing rush but a new airport is long overdue.

The government’s 2006 plan to construct a greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur, an industrial hub just outside Chennai, did not take off due to a slew of factors, including opposition from PMK, which was an ally of the then DMK government. Efforts by the AIADMK government between 2011 and 2021 in this regard also did not fructify.

“We have now begun the work on the second airport. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Corporation (TIDCO) has suggested four locations close to Chennai for the second airport. AAI is inspecting the four sites, which is the preliminary step. Once the inspection is over, the work on identifying the site will begin after discussions,” a government official told DH.

Tirupporur is the closest of the four locations in the city with a distance of 44 km, while Padalam is the farthest located at around 78 km. Pannur is 54 km away from Chennai and the distance between the state capital and Parandur is 69 km.

“Distance is not an issue these days. It takes at least an hour from the city centres to travel to airports in many metros today. And we cannot build airports inside the city. All the locations suggested can be covered in two hours by road from Chennai. We will have to wait for AAI’s inspection to get over,” another official said.

The first official quoted said the government has no plans to close down the existing airport even after the new facility gets operationalised.

“Chennai will follow the Delhi model of having multiple terminals. Since huge money has been invested in modernising the existing airport terminal buildings, they will also be used for commercial operations,” he added. In Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the old airports were closed after the new ones were inaugurated.

Besides Chennai, Tamil Nadu has five operational airports – Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Coimbatore, Thoothukudi, and Salem. The state government has now commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of setting up an airport in the industrial city of Hosur located just outside Bengaluru.

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