CHENNAI: The city will get its second airport in Sriperumbudur once the master plan for Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC) project is implemented, according to Ichiguchi Tomohide, a senior official of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Speaking to Express, he said the Greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur is part of the masterplan prepared for developing the CBIC.
The project is proposed to be implemented on 4,800 acres (1,900 ha) of land. This also comes in the wake of Airport Authority of India stating that the new terminals of the Meenambakkam airport, built at a cost of over Rs 2,000 crore, could soon reach saturation point and could not take the passenger load beyond 2021.
However, JICA did not give any commitment on funding the greenfield airport project in Sriperumbudur. “At this stage, I can’t say whether we will be funding the project or not,” said Tomohide.
More than 20 projects have been identified by JICA as part of developing CBIC, which is at a planning stage. “Lot of preparation work has to commence. Firstly, the land acquisition has to start following which we also require environmental clearance,” said Tomohide.