4 days ago
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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Salem, has demanded the State authorities to expedite the process of Salem Airport expansion and to get onshore for the task from the farmers.
The Salem airdrome is dispersed implicit 136 acres at Kamalapuram. In 2018, the AIADMK-led State authorities decided to expand the airport, and issued a G.O. connected February 15, 2018, to get 567.43 acres of land, including 535.10 acres of patta onshore and 32.33 acres of authorities poramboke onshore successful Kamalapuram, Pottiyapuram, Sikkanmpatti, and Thumbipadi villages. But, farmers and governmental parties, including the DMK, PMK, and TMC (M), opposed acquiring workplace lands.
On June 9, 2022, the State authorities led by DMK issued different G.O. to get 117.35 acres of land, additionally including 94.38 acres of patta onshore and 22.97 acres of poramboke lands for the airdrome expansion. Yet, onshore acquisition did not process owed to protests and oppositions.
Meanwhile, based connected the Salem Collector’s connection and the proposal of the Commissioner of onshore administration, connected November 17, 2025, the authorities approved for acquiring 206.17 acres of onshore successful a archetypal signifier astatine a outgo of ₹364.85 crore. However, the land-acquiring process is yet to commence.
The CII Salem portion president P. Boopalan said, to alteration Salem into a world-class concern and transit hub by 2035, the contiguous absorption should beryllium connected the signifier I enlargement of Salem Airport, with astir routes experiencing higher request averages astatine an occupancy complaint of implicit 80%. He added that with 1,800 meters of runway, the airdrome presently handles lone ATR/Bombardier variants of flights. The airdrome has the capableness to grip 1 formation per hour, which tin beryllium greatly improved with airdrome expansion..
Mr. Boopalan noted that the airdrome presently serves destinations including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Cochin, isolated from Chennai. Likewise, the DGCA-approved formation grooming organisation is successful Salem, which is the lone 1 successful Tamil Nadu. The national authorities precocious released ₹24 crore towards improving airdrome infrastructure, helium added.
N. Senthil Kumar, erstwhile president of the CII Salem portion and co-convenor of the MSME sheet of CII Tamil Nadu, said that astir ₹310 crore from the allotted ₹364.85 crore, for the expansion, has been sanctioned and is awaiting disbursement. “We petition Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to contented indispensable orders towards disbursement of funds to the landowners and initiate the onshore acquisition process, which has been halted for 8 years, towards handing it implicit to the Airport Authority of India.
Mr. Kumar said that erstwhile onshore acquisition is complete, runway expansion and installation of instrumentality landing systems to facilitate captious nighttime landing tin beryllium easy undertaken.
