Thoothukudi airport gears up to attract global investors

THOOTHUKUDI: Having clinched the lion’s share of Rs 68,180 crore from the total amount of investments mobilised through the recently held Global Investors’ Meet (GIM), Thoothukudi district is gearing up to enhance its infrastructure to the expectations of the investors.

With a good port and ample road and rail connectivity, airport development has to be taken up as the foremost infrastructure project to be enhanced immediately in Thoothukudi, feel traders and industrialists, who want the on-going airport expansion process to be accelerated.

Currently having only two smaller aircrafts of bombardier Q-400 type operated to Chennai during daytime, D R Koteeswaran, secretary of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) demanded additional flights from here to Bengaluru, Kochi and Mumbai.

Representing the long-felt need of the business fraternity of creating night landing facilities at Thoothukudi airport, Koteeswaran, a member of the airport development consultative committee, wanted Thoothukudi airport to be upgraded into an international airport to operate services to nearby Sri Lanka.

Responding to the demands of Thoothukudiites, E C Taji, director of Thoothukudi airport said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) plans to set up a solar-powered obstruction lamp atop the nearby Vallanad hill to ensure the safe landing of flights at night.

The airport administration, through AAI, has applied to the forest department to allocate the required space (10x10 m) to set up a metallic mast and install a solar panel for the obstruction lamp, Taji added.

According to airport sources, facilities like precision approach path indicator (PAPI) and high intensity lighting gadgets fitted with halogen lamps along either side of the 1,350 m long runway have been already installed at Thoothukudi airport at a cost of Rs 1.14 crore.

An AAI official added that the airport now has a 100 m by 60 m parking apron for two ATR 72 or Q-400 aircrafts, while its terminal building is capable of handling 72 passengers at a time during peak hours.

Once, the acquisition of 586 acres for airport expansion is completed, Thoothukudi airport will have an expanded runway of 1800 m to comfortably handle bigger flights, said airport authorities.