Airport expansion plan under scanner

It will result in dislocation of 947 houses; High Court verdict on land acquisition soon.

A verdict is expected from the Madras High Court within a week on the Airport Authority of India’s land acquisition plans, but the debate on the merits of its airport expansion project rages on.

While the AAI maintains that the Rs.2,700-crore project, which will result in the dislocation of 947 houses, is crucial to Chennai’s future as a key aviation hub in India and South Asia, experts have raised questions about the necessity and merits of the plan in light of what they perceive to be inefficiencies in airspace use and the cost of displacement.

When the AAI first conceived the plan to expand the airport four years ago, it had forecast that Chennai would need to handle around 50 aircraft movements an hour by 2015. According to the AAI, the expansion plan will enable Chennai to handle traffic growth until 2016. The AAI expects the greenfield airport — Sriperumbudur is the likely location—to be ready by then.