Chennai is very soon going to get another airport in the city. As of now, all that is needed is the approval of the Civil Aviation Ministry. The ministry wanted a thorough technical study to be done before a location for the second airport in Tamil Nadu's capital could be finalised. As per a New Indian Express report, the state government has landed upon two destinations - Parandur and Cheyyar. Out of these two, one would be finalised for the constructions of the second airport in Chennai. Keep reading ahead to find out more details about the story.
Detailed Project Report for the Airport Only After the Location Finalisation by Ministry
Once the ongoing technical study is done, the Civil Aviation Ministry will take a call on the location where the second airport of Chennai will be built. The detailed project reports will be prepared once the location is finalised said an official related to the matter.
An area of 4,500 acres is likely to be finalised for constructing the New Greenfield airport in Chennai. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) was assigned for choosing a consultant who would prepare the Techno-economic feasibility report. For the unaware, Techno-economic feasibility report helps get statutory clearances and would also assist in organising the bid process for the airport developer's selection.
The report would include financial model, masterplan, survey, bid management, mandatory clearances, etc for the Greenfield airport site with the help of a consultant. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the new airport's pre-bid process had to be postponed to March this year.
The new site selected for the airport is approximately 60 km away from the Chennai International Airport. The reason behind building a new airport is to manage passenger traffic through the Chennai International Airport in an efficient manner.
According to the forecasts, the Chennai airport will be saturated by 2024 in terms of passenger handling capacity. Currently, the airport has a capacity for handling up to passenger traffic of 15 million only. But in 2019, the capacity touched 22 million passengers which was a lot for the airport to handle.
