With the residents of Pozhichalur up in arms, the expansion plans of the Chennai international airport is getting mired in controversy. Expanding the airport means that close to 1,500 acres of the surrounding areas like Anakaputhur and Pozhichalur (a town which is situated north-west of Pallavaram) will be taken over by the government. But the residents want none of it. They want the government to look for a site that would not affect human habitation.

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Most of the residents feel that the airport should be expanded in the outer region of the city, say a place like Sriperumbudur. The first advantage would be that traffic congestion will be minimised and the airport can have more modern facilities to handle high volumes of cargo and passenger carriers.

Moreover, it would be close to the IT majors plus in future the area might attract more IT parks and become affluent. Furthermore, heavy cargos can be handled smoothly to create more revenues.

While looking at the negative aspect if the airport is expanded within the city, the vacant land which you get may not be adequate to fit in the airport facilities according to international standards.

Plus the passenger traffic would become more congested and with limited space and handling of floating passengers would be a nightmare. Further, air traffic (landing and take-off ) would be affected due to poor visibility - particularly during rainy and foggy days as there would be more number of residential and high rise flats in the vicinity of the airport.

Now the Tamil Nadu government has assured that it will acquire 700 to 800 acres of land near Chennai airport in order to build an extra runway. But the residents of Anakaputhur and Pozhichalur are dead against the proposal. They say there will be enormous noise pollution which would affect the elderly, plus they fear that if there is any mishap in the functioning of the aircraft it would affect the people living near the place.

“We do not have enough money and I’m a retired government employee; how will I look for a new house and relocate at this age,” asks a resident of Pozhichalur.

The state government has always shown interest in a greenfield airport coming up in Chennai in addition to the existing airport and had short-listed two sites, one at Oragadam village and the other near Sriperumbudur.

As far as the airport officials are concerned, they feel that any modernisation would lead to privatisation. An official at the airport said, “If the airport is going to be modernised and privatised it would affect the public as parking fee will rise, air fares will be hiked, passenger fee and entry ticket will be also be increased. On the other hand, employees working in the airport will be affected further as they will lose all existing benefits by the government.”

But there is no gainsaying the fact that the Chennai airport, with its burgeoning traffic and cargo, needs to be expanded. And the best way to achieve this is to locate the airport at a distance from Chennai city, where there would be scope for easy expansion and handling of the growing traffic.

Saranya Sridharan