Vellore airport works may be over in two months

According to sources, once the Abdullapuram-Asanambut Road, which now divides the airport into two --with the runway on one side and the terminal building on the other, all airport-related works would be completed in two months. “The runway is now being black-topped and once the road is handed over, we will have to extend the runway across the road to the apron near the terminal building,” the sources added. “Black topping will be completed in 15 days while work on the terminal building would be over in 45 days,” they added.

It may be recalled that airport works faced a roadblock when AAI suddenly demanded the district administration for an additional 441 acres. While AAI stated the additional land to be for a longer runway to handle bigger aircraft, there was no viability study planned regarding such planes, sources said.

However, officials commenting on the land row, said, “AAI at a meeting in the Secretariat two days ago said they had sought the additional 441 acres ‘not for immediate use’. Hence, we have asked them to give the same in writing and told them that the airport should be completed as per the original schedule based on which the runway was extended to 850 metres to handle 20-seater aircraft.”