TAMIL NADU PUSHES FOR FASTER EXPANSION OF AIRPORTS TO MATCH ITS ECONOMIC SURGE

Passenger traffic is rising sharply, new industrial clusters are coming up across the State with a boom in distributed growth, and yet several completed or near-ready airports are waiting for timely operational clearance, points out Minister for Industries T.R.B. Rajaa

- AJIKUMAR CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu's industrial and economic surge in the past four years requires a far larger and more rapid expansion of airport infrastructure, according to Minister for Industries T.R.B. Rajaa.

"Passenger traffic is rising sharply, new industrial clusters are coming up across the State with a boom in distributed growth, and yet several completed or near-ready airports — from Vellore and Neyveli to Salem and Thanjavur — are waiting for timely operational clearance," he said at a recent interaction with journalists of The Hindu.

"We are developing major greenfield airports at Parandur and Hosur, but the reality is simple: a State of our scale needs many more functional airports, and we urge the Union government to match Tamil Nadu's pace so that connectivity does not become a bottleneck for growth," Mr. Rajaa said.