Why Coimbatore airport expansion project remains jinxed for 3 decades

The 3 decade old Coimbatore airport expansion project remains jinxed since Tamil Nadu government and the Coimbatore district administration are yet     to  acquire 35 acres of patta land for the project. The defense ministry is also contributing to the inordinate delay by not releasing 135 acres required for the implementation of the project.

The declaration of 125 year old Coimbatore airport as a full-fledged international airport hinges on expansion of the runways which requires land. The inordinate delay by both the defense ministry and Coimbatore district administration has resulted in the airport infrastructure remaining in the 18^th century mode.

A total of 434.43 acres of ‘patta’ land have been acquired as on December 31 by the Tamil Nadu government for the expansion of Coimbatore International Airport, revealed a reply to a Right to Information query. Out of the 468.83 acre patta land to be acquired, now only 34.40 acres need to be acquired. The acquired land is yet to be handed over to airport authority of India which runs the airport which means project is nowhere near commencement of work.

The information was provided by the Special Tahsildar (Land Acquisition) for the extension of the airport runway. In his reply the Tahsildar also clarified that no land has been handed over to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) so far. The ‘enter upon permission’ land shall be used only for the purpose of airport expansion and for modernisation works by the AAI, the tahsildar replied.

The AAI has requested the Tamil Nadu government to acquire a total of 635.33 acres, including 468.83 acres of patta lands, 28.37 acre ‘poramboke’ (unassessed revenue land); 134.32 acres of Defense land and 3.30 acres of other government department land, all spread across Singanallur, Uppilipalayam, Kalapatti, Neelambur and Irugur villages. 

The land locked industrial town suffers from infra handicaps like absence of modern airport poor railway connectivity and poor ground water and expensive labor.