Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
ePaper
Online edition of India's National Newspaper Saturday, Oct 06, 2007 ePaper |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tamil Nadu |
|
News:
ePaper |
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Engagements |
Advts: Retail Plus | Classifieds | Jobs | Obituary |
Tamil Nadu
MAKING A POINT: Chennai Mayor M. Subramanian having a word with Ar Rm Arun, Vice-Chairman, SPEL Semiconductor Limited, at a seminar in Chennai on Friday. R. Sivakumar, Member, IT and Communications Panel, FICCI, Tamil Nadu State Council, is in the picture. — CHENNAI: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to make Chennai airport a ‘mini Heathrow’ by offering world class facilities. (Heathrow, London, is one of the world’s biggest airports.) Addressing a seminar on the topic ‘Chennai unwired,’ organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Dinesh Kumar, AAI Director, said here on Friday that in the last 18 months they had taken historic decisions to expand Chennai airport into a world class one. Plans were on the anvil to lay a second runway to meet the traffic demands beyond 2015. At present, the Chennai airport can handle 25 to 30 flights an hour. This would go up to 45-60 flights. “Passengers should get what they need. We have to provide all facilities so that they don’t find Chennai lagging behind other airports. The Chennai airport is now Wi-Fi enabled. Last year, AAI spent Rs.100 crore on modernisation. Without investing in infrastructure, we can’t see changes,” he said. Mr. Kumar said AAI was developing all the 33 airports in the south. They would all have longer runways, new buildings and sophisticated equipment, and would be on a par with international airports. “Since Chennai is fast emerging as a hub for IT, automobile, heavy industry, tourism and healthcare sectors, we have to think about expansion now itself. A greenfield airport takes eight to 10 years for completion. This year Chennai handled 11 million passengers as against nine million passengers last year,” he said. Cargo flightsStating that many airline companies had shown interest in bringing in their cargo flights by making Chennai the base, Mr. Kumar said: “Chennai is the hub not only for technology development, but for goods and services too. Chennai handles 2.4 lakh tonnes of cargo as against 36 lakh tonnes by the Heathrow airport. We have a long way to go in terms of providing facilities to passengers and for handling cargo.”
Printer friendly
page
News:
ePaper |
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Engagements |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | The Hindu ePaper | Business Line | Business Line ePaper | Sportstar | Frontline | Publications | eBooks | Images | Home |
Copyright © 2007, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
