Puducherry, June 3 (BPNS)

The Puducherry airport runway is in the process of expansion and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the same.

Puducherry Civil Aviation minister Lakshminarayanan while speaking to BPNS said, “  A technical team of the Airport Authority of India had visited the Union Territory in January 2022 and had assessed the details of the land requirement and a master plan has been prepared as a follow up of this visit.”

He said that there would be land acquisition in two phases involving 30 acres of land in Union territory of Puducherry and 395 acres in Tamil Nadu in two phases.

In the first phase, 150.5 acres of land will be acquired of which 30 acres are in Puducherry while the remaining 120.5 acres are in Tamil Nadu. During phase two expansion 273.5 acres of land will be acquired in Tamil Nadu and the state government has already allocated Rs 300 crores for this land. Sources in the Government of Union Territory told BPNS that of the 30 acres of land required from the Puducherry government, 28.5 acres have been identified. Of this 20 acres is with the Puducherry government while the balance 8.5 acres is with private owners and government sources told BPNS that there are around 60 buildings in this 8.5-acre landed property.

According to officials, the present runway is 1500×30 m and is capable of handling smaller ATR48/72 aircraft and Q400 type of aircraft. The land to acquire, according to officials is a low-lying area and has to be filled for around 60 feet to make it at par with the existing runway.

The total amount required for acquiring the land is around 425 crores as per the present estimate, officials of the Union territory informed BPNS and added that the entire amount will be funded by the Government of India.