Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today announced plans for setting up a new greenfield airport at Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur taluks near Chennai, apart from the expansion of the existing airport at Meenambakkam.The expansion of the existing airport would be taken up at Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Kerugambakkam and Tharapakkam in Sriperumbudur taluk, Karunanidhi said today after a resolution was adopted at legislative party leaders meeting at the Secretariat.While the greenfield airport would come up over 4,820.66 acres, expansion of Chennai airport would be carried out over 1,069.99 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore, he said.Karunanidhi said the work for both the expansion and the greenfield airports would be entrusted to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The government would provide suitable compensation to 947 households in these areas and also rehabilitate them.The rehabilitation would be done in the first phase of the expansion work itself, he said.The Chief Minister said all parties, including the PMK, MDMK and the DMDK, had supported the resolution. However, the opposition AIADMK did not support the resolution.D Jayakumar, who represented the AIADMK at the meeting, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister "to reconsider the proposal as people in certain places have raised objections to the project."Karunanidhi said land acquisition was estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore. The construction would need an investment of another Rs 1,000 crore, he said.
